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Contents 

Chapter    I 

INTRODUCTION 

Primitive  character  of  serpent  worship  and  later  additions.  Sanity  in  the 
study.  Distinction  between  simple  worship  of  primitive  man  and  debas- 
ing character  of  later  worship.  Need  for  a  broad  view  of  the  subject. 
Mental  status  of  primitive  man  defined  his  worship.  Religious  sense 
awakened  by  the  phenomena  of  nature.  Great  drama  of  life  and  the 
universe  a  mystery  to  him. 

pp.    9-IO. 

Chapter    II 

THK  DOMINANT  THOUGHT  IN  SERPENT  WORSHIP 

Serpent  symbolized  creative  forces  in  nature.  Creative  forces  the  source 
of  his  blessing.  Divinity  in  these  mighty  energies.  Schliermacher's 
definition  of  religion.  Hume's  theory  of  the  origin  of  religion.  Bownc's 
germ  of  religious  impulse. 

pp.    11-15. 

Chapter    III 

THE  RADICAL  MEANING  OF  THE  SERPENT  SYMBOL 

The  serpent  and  the  tree.  The  serpent  and  the  sun.  Root  idea.  Buddha 
seated  on  a  serpent.  Pharoah's  crown  with  a  serpent.  Vishnu  and  the 
serpent.  Trumbull's  idea  of  the  primitive  altar.  Meaning  of  the  thres- 
hold altar.  Inscription  of  Nebuchadrezzar  II.  Hebrew  words  for  asp 
and  threshold.    Serpent  hair  of  Medusa.    Yezidis  worship  of  serpent. 

pp.    16-17. 

Chapter    IV 

THE  SERPENT  AND  THE  SUN 

Eusebius  and  the  ritual  of  Zoroaster.  Deified  solar  race  of  India.  Rain 
deities.  Asp  of  Egypt.  Serpent  and  the  circle.  Hawk-headed  figures 
and  the  serpent.  The  Apep  serpent.  Hymn  to  Amen  Ra.  Conflict  of 
light  and  darkness  in  the  Avesta.  Conflict  between  Indra  and 
Vritra.    Russian    conflict  between  Byellog  and  Chernobog.    The  Indian 


f'i  iy^ro  I  \  r'  i.  1 


i-cpr*.  -irrpcm  tcmpic  at  Aliury,  England.  Stanton  temple.  West- 
moreland. Amcriean  serpent  temples.  Temple  of  Karnac  in  Brittany, 
Druidical  worship,  Stonehengc.  Scotland  and  the  snakes.  The  snakes 
of  Ireland.  Mexico,  Te/catlepoca  and  Uii/.ilopochtli,  Hicrograni  of 
Egypt.    Persia.    Greece.      Rome  and  China.    Serpent  in  the  zodiac. 

pp.    18-24, 

Chapter    V 

THF.  SERPENT  AND  THE  EG(J 

Primitive  chaos  represented  by  the  egg.  Cncph,  —  Egyptian  creator, 
Phtha.    i'rutagoncs. 

p.    25, 

Chapter    VI 

THE  SERPENT  AND  THE  RIVER 

Why  i>  the  serpent  the  symbol  of"  creative  power  ?     Two  theories. 

Pirst — The  serpent  itself  suggested  the  symbol.  Serpent  mysterious, 
therefore  representing  the  mysterious  things  of  lite.  Difficulty  with 
the  theory. 

Second — Theory  of'  Keary,  River,  the  original  serpent.  Oceanus, — the  earth 
encircling  river.  The  serpent  of  the  Midgard  Sea.  Apollo  and  the 
Python.  Birth  of  the  Python.  Rivers  and  serpents  confounded.  Tree 
and  serpcntworbhip  in  Egypt.  Relation  of  the  serpent  to  the  Nile. 
Babylonian  Tiamat.  The  Hebrews  and  the  sea.    Babylonian  Ea.    Jinns. 

pp.    26-30. 

Chapter    VII 

THE  SERPENT  AND   THE  TORRENT 

The  Russian  Norka,  Colossac  and  the  archangel  Michael,  The  fountain  at 
Delphi.  The  Lernean  Hydra.  The  Hebrew  Tannin.  The  Indian 
Lake  Serpent. 

pp.    31-32. 

Chapter    VIII 

THE  SERPENT  AND  THE  CLOUD 

Ahi  and  Vritra,  clouds, — originally  rivers.  Celestial  serpent  of  Persia.  Eclipse 
of  Chinese.  Rainbow  of  Persia.  Serpent  or  dragon  as  the  giver  of  rain 
in  China,  India  and  America.  Meaning  of  Indra  and  Vritra.  Visit  of 
Gautama  to  a  naga  king.  Muki  Indians  and  the  rain.  Snake  dance  a 
prayer  for  rain. 

PP-    33-36. 


Chapter    IX 

THE  SERPENT  AND  THE  WIND 

Destructive    and    beneficent    wind.    Typhon.      Rudra.    Feathered  serpent  of 
Mexico. 

PP-    37-38. 


Chapter    X 

THE  SERPENT  AS  ATMOSPHERIC  PHENOMENA 

Thunderstorm    cloud.    Istac    Mixcoatl.    Schwarz  theory  of  the  lightning  ser- 
pent.   Cherubim  and  Seraphim.    Serpents  of  Job  and  Isaiah. 

pp.    39-40. 


Chapter    XI 

THE  SERPENT  AS  GUARDIAN 

Guardian  and  symbol  of  wealth.    Chinese  dragons.    Serpent  on  the  Acropolis. 
Apples  of  Hesperides.    Serpents — household  pets  in  Egypt. 

pp.  41-42. 


Chapter    XII 

THE  SERPENT  AS  THE  ANCESTOR  OF  MEN 

Serpentine  origin  of  ancestors.  Greece,  Rome,  Phoenicia,  and  Egypt.  Cad- 
mus and  the  dragon.  Aeneas  and  his  father's  spirit.  Scythians.  Abys- 
sians.  Africans.  Snake  ancestress  of  snake  society  in  Arizona.  Naga 
ancestors  in  India.    The  Kojiki.    Ainos  of  Japan. 

PP-   43-45- 


Chapter    XIII 

THE  SERPENT  AS  WISDOM 

Dragon  of  China.  Kneph  of  Egypt.  Pandora.  The  wisdom  of  the  serpents 
of  Upanishads.  Phoenicians  Mexico.  What  suggested  the  serpent  as 
the  symbol  of  wisdom.    The  Ophites. 

pp.    46-47. 


Chapter    XI\^ 
THK  ShRPF.NT-THE  SVMBOI.  OF  HEALING 

The  worship  uf  AcKula,,iu».  K^-vpti.n  serpent- heack-d  nurses.  Present 
worship  of  the  scrp.-,.,  in  K^-vpt  as  a  hcalinp  deity.  Official  religion. 
and  the  popular  bclict  in  fipypt  in  the  serpent. 

pp.    48-49. 

Chapter    XV 
TIIF.  SFRPKNT  AS  SYMBOL  OK  (;00D  AND  EVIL. 

The    Scncficcnt  charaacr    of   the    river.      Its   destructive  character      Ea  and 
rumat.    fcvcry  possibility  of  good,  a  corresponding  possibility  of  evil 

PP-    50-S'- 

Chapter    X\'I 
THE    SERPENT    AND    THE    BIBLE 

Cicnesis  3:..      The' brazen  serpent  '  '"terpretation  of 

PP-    5a-54- 

Chapter    XVII 

THE    DKRASINCJ    CHARACTER    OF    THE    WORSHIP 
IN    LATER    TIMES 

.he  universe  ,„d  lilc  ^        f^      """  """  •"  '"'"■=  *=  "-y^ry  of 

PP-   SS-S9- 

Appendix. 

'""    ■'"''    "•"«^""'    «f'    THE    SERPENT    SPRING 
'HOM    A    COMMON    CENTER? 

pp.   60-61. 
8 


Errata. 

p.   16,  note.    Wilkin  should  be  Wilkins. 

p.  20,  fourth  paragraph,  scared    should    be   sacred. 

p.  29,  note  3.    should    read    Smith's  Chaldean 
Account  of  Genesis 

p.  42,  note,  nags  should  be  naga. 

p.  53,  note  2.    before    the    word    "derived"  add 
"and  is." 

p.   54,  note  3.  omit  "may" 

p.  61.  last    word    should  be  "worship"  instead  of 


"race." 


>   ,  >     .  .    .> 


Chapter    I 
1Intro^uctton. 


The  study  of  serpent  worship  is  indeed  a  most  interest- 
ing and  at  the  same  time  a  most  perplexing  subject.  The 
serpent  symbol  stands  for  so  many  apparently  unrelated  and 
even  opposite  ideas  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  be  sure  as  to 
its  basic  and  original  meaning. 

One  must,  therefore,  exercise  the  greatest  care  in  deter- 
mining the  primitive  character  of  the  worship  and  the  later 
additions.  Our  ancestors  were  great  borrowers  of  religious 
ideas  and  symbols;  then  having  borrowed  some  symbol,  they 
modified  it  to  suit  their  own  environment.  They  borrowed 
from  Egypt,  Babylonia  and  Persia;  and  in  turn,  Israel  sug- 
gested religious  conceptions  to  others.  It  is  probable,  for 
example,  that  the  picture  of  Krishna,  the  incarnation  of 
Vishnu,  treading  on  the  head  of  a  serpent  is  originally  a 
Hebrew  conception.  We  are  reminded  by  Say ce  that  many 
of  the  Egyptian  serpent  stories  are  priestly  inventions  made 
to  gratify  the  popular  fancy;  for  the  people  had  a  great 
many  serpent  fables  of  their  own  that  came  down  to  them 
from  the  greatest  antiquity. 

There  is  also  a  demand  for  great  sanity  in  the  study 
of  the  serpent  as  the  subject  is  a  delicate  one.  A  distinction 
must  be  made  between  the  simple,  honest  purpose  ofprimi- 
tive  man  in  his  worship  and  the  debasing  character  of  the 
worship  m  later  times.  Serpent  worship  is  a  study  where 
the  mind  sees  as  it  brings  with  it  the  desire  to  see.  There 
is  abundant  literature  on  the  subject  and  you  can  take  your 
choice  according  to  the  purpose  you  have  in  the  study. 

The  largeness  of  the  theme  has  led  investigators  to 
devote  attention  to  some  particular  part  of  it  and  the  result 
has  been  a  very  imperfect  conception  of  the  worship.  One 
man  studies  the  serpent  in  its  relation  to  the  sun,  and  he  is 
so  dazzled  that  he  can  see  no  other  relation.  Another 
views  it  as  a  river  symbol  and  fails  to  see  it  related  to  the 
sun,  another  investigator  is  certain  that  he  has  found  the 
original  serpent  in  the  lighting,  the  suddenness  of  the  flash, 

9 


•  •••  •  • 


its  dcatli-dcalinc  Mow  seemed  serpent-like  and  originated 
the    thought    at     serpent    worship.  I'hese    all    are    but 

partial  views  of  its  meaning.  The  true  view  is  a  composite 
of'  all  these.  We  shall  discover  later  how  these  are  all 
rooted  in  one  idea. 

Again,  the  honest  investigator  must  not  confine  his  at- 
tention to  one  particular  country  or  one  particular  time. 
He  must  endeavor  to  trace  the  worship  to  its  source  to  dis- 
cover its  primal  meaning.  The  study  is  about  as  elusive 
as  the  serpent  itself;  but  it  is  alike  fascinating  and  worth 
while. 

We  may  say  at  the  outset  that  the  mental  status  of  the 
primitive  man  defined  his  worship,  and  that  no  theory  of 
serpent  worship  will  be  satisfactory  which  regards  him  as  a 
perfect  creature  intellectually  and  spiritually.  Dr.  South  in 
one  of  his  sermons  maintained  that  the  first  man  was  an 
intellectual  giant,  and  that  Aristotle  was  but  the  ruins  of  an 
Adam.  This  is  similar  to  the  theory  of  the  country 
preacher  who  believed  that  the  first  man  was  made  the 
depository  of  all  the  information  that  men  have  since  been 
able  to  learn  by  invention  and  discovery,  and  that  the  fall 
caused  the  loss  of  all  this  knowledge;  further,  that  these 
lost  attainments  were  afterwards  regarded  as  the  lost  arts, 
and  that  man  is  only  gradually  recovering  this  knowledge 
which  he  lost  in  Adam. 

We  are  not,  however,  to  expect  such  intellectual  pre- 
cocity in  our  ancestors  of  long  ago.  It  is  more  natural  to 
believe  that  primitive  man  began  at  a  lower  scale  intellectual- 
ly and  religiously,  and  that  he  grew  in  wisdom  and  know- 
ledge; his  religious  conceptions  could  not  have  been  loftier 
than  his  civilization,  his  religious  sense  was  awakened  by 
the  mysterious  phenomena  of  nature,  and  he  worshipped 
the  mysterious  power  in  and  behind  the  phenomena.  In 
his  primitive  simplicity  we  cannot  think  of  him  as  having 
very  spiritual  conceptions;  we  believe  that  he  had  the  possi- 
bility, but  it  was  an  undeveloped  possibility  for  great  spirit- 
uality. So  the  great  mysteries  around  him  made  him  think 
of  the  mysterious  divinity,  that  was  the  source  of  his  bless- 
ing or  his  destruction.  The  great  drama  of  life  was  a 
mystery  to  him  and  he  worshipped  as  best  he  could. 

10 


Chapter    II 
Zl)c  tjomtnant  tbouQbt  in  serpent  worsbip. 

Man  in  the  earliest  ages  worshipped  the  serpent 
because  in  some  mysterious  way  the  serpent  symbolized 
the  creative  forces  in  nature;  these  forces  were  not  worship- 
ped because  they  were  feared,  but  rather  because  they  were 
the  source  of  his  blessing.  I  do  not  mean  to  convey  the 
idea  that  there  was  no  fear  in  his  worship  ;  but  it  does  not 
seem  the  proper  expression  for  the  primitive  man's  thought. 

Man  was  conscious  of  his  own  dependence  and  limita- 
tion in  the  midst  of  these  great  powers  of  nature.  He  be- 
lieved that  the  movements  of  the  great  bodies  in  nature 
were  caused  by  a  power  similar  to  his  own.  He  of  his  own 
volition  produced  effects  in  the  external  world.  In  the 
mighty  energies  of  nature  he  felt  the  presence  of  a  divinity 
exercising  his  volitional  power.  It  is  part  of  man's  inheri- 
tance to  believe  in  divinity  or  divinities  behind  all  nature's 
manifestations.  It  is  not  correct  to  say  that  he  deified  the 
powers  of  nature.  It  is  correct  to  say  that  when  man 
looked  upon  these  mighty  powers,  he  felt  his  own  weak- 
ness and  felt  also  the  "divinity  in  these  energies.''  Pflei- 
derer  remarks;  "that  the  imagination  of  the  childlike  man 
ensouls  all  nature,  that  is,  treats  it,  especially  the  phenomena 
of  motion,  after  the  analogy  of  human  or  animal  life  between 
which  he  does  not  discriminate;  thus  he  sees  in  every  process 
the  effect  of  a  conscious  and  voluntarily  acting  soul."  ' 

Ulrici  speaks  to  the  same  effect;  when  he  says  that  the 
manifold  nature  religions  do  "not  deify  the  mere  powers  and 
objects  of  nature"  but  rather  manifest  a  "perception  of  the 
divine,  though  dim  and  undefined,  of  a  power  working  be- 
hind the  phenomena  of  nature."  * 

1  Pfleiderer.      Religions   philosophic    pp.     277,    278. 

2  Ulrici.      Gott  und  der  Mensch  vol.  I.  p.  697. 

Trumbull.  The  Threshold  Covenant,  p.  223.  "The  distinguish- 
ing attribute  of  man,  as  distinct  from  the  lower  animals  at  their  best,  is  the 
capacity  to  conceive  of  spiritual  facts  and  forces.  Even  at  his  lovsrest  state, 
man  is  never  without  an  apprehension  of  immaterial  and  supernatural  person- 
alities." 

11 


There  Is  a  great  deal  of  force  in  the  definition  of  re- 
ligion as  Schleiermacher  has  presented  it;  to  him,  religion 
is  the  consciousness  of  absolute  dependence  upon  that 
which,  though  it  determines  us,  we  cannot  determine  in 
turn.  The  definition  of  Teichmuller,  quoted  by  Max 
Muller,  carries  out  the  thought  of  Schleiermacher.  Teich- 
muller says  in  part;  Religion  consists  "of  personal  feelings 
of  fear,  of  complete  dependence  on  unknown  powers,  which 
form  a  motive  leading  man  to  seek  comtort  in  a  view  of  the 
world  not  supported  by  experience."  This  thought  of  ab- 
solute dependence  may  not  be  a  complete  definition;  but  we 
mav  be  sure  that  in  the  religious  conception  of  primitive 
man,  this  thought  was  a  predominant  one.  It  is  perfectlv 
natural  to  think  that  in  the  earliest  ages  his  religion  was 
very  simple  and  childlike.  When  he  was  a  child  he  spake 
as  a  child  and  thought  as  a  child,  when  he  became  a  man 
other  elements  of  religious  thought  entered  his  soul. 

When  Spinoza  says  that  religion  is  the  "love  of  God 
founded  on  a  knowledge  of  his  divine  perfections",  we  feel 
that  this  notion  is  not  at  all  related  to  the  religious  faith  of 
primitive  peoples.  In  man's  religious  development,  I 
think  we  may  be  sure  that  the  sense  of  absolute  depend- 
ence on  unknown  powers  was  the  first  thought  awakened 
in  his  religious  consciousness.  This  dependence  was  not 
a  very  highly  developed  and  spiritual  sense  of  need;  but  a 
real  consciousness  that  there  were  powers  without  him  and 
above  him  that  could  satisfy  his  needs.  These  forces 
above  him  would  never  have  stirred  him  to  worship  unless 
there  had  been  born  in  him  the  instinct  to  worship.  The 
same  forces  are  about  the  animal  world  ;  they  give  evidence 
that  they  fear  these  powers  of  nature,  but  that  fear  does 
not  develop  worshipful  tendencies. 

It  was  Hume's  idea  that  as  long  as  there  is  order  in 
the  world,  man  is  not  inspired  to  worship.  The  worship- 
ful spirit  is  only  aroused  by  the  abnormal  things  in  man's 
experience.  The  startling  events  in  life  have  created  reli- 
gion. It  is  true  that  such  experiences  have  awakened  the 
religious  sense;  but  that  sense  would  never  have  been 
awaked  unless  it  had  been  part  of  man's  original  endow- 
ment.     Bereavement,  danger,  or    some  unexpected    event 

12 


has  awakened  this  religious  susceptibility.  A  shipwreck 
impeled  Volney  to  pray.  The  death  of  Hume's  mother 
brought  out  this  confession  that  his  speculations  were  for 
the  purpose  of  entertaining  a  "learned  and  metaphysical 
world  ";  yet  in  other  things  he  confessed  that  he  did  "  not 
think  differently  from  the  rest  of  the  world."  ' 

The  religious  nature  of  man  is  based  on  his  sense  of 
need.  Fear  cannot  be  the  ground  of  religion  ;  it  may  and 
does  have  much  to  do  with  its  beginnings,  but  the  ground 
of  man's  religion  is  his  religious  nature ;  otherwise  stock 
and  stone  would  be  nothing  more  than  stock  and  stone  to 
him.  His  worship  therefore  is  the  endeavor  to  find  satis- 
faction for  that  nature.  There  must  be  what  Bowne  calls 
"a  germ  of  religious  impulse  in  the  soul  in  order  to  make 
religious  development  possible."  -  That  religious  impulse 
in  our  primitive  ancestors  had  to  do  mainly  with  his  simple 
and  immediate  material  desires.  The  thought  of  immortal- 
ity was  an  undeveloped  thought.  In  the  very  early  history 
of  man  we  cannot  imagine  that  he  made  any  provision  for 
the  future.  He  therefore  was  constantly  dependent  on  the 
great  forces  of  nature  to  supply  his  physical  need.  And  so 
he  worshipped  the  forces  of  nature  not  simplv  because  he 
feared  them.  There  was  something  more  positive  in  his 
thought;  his  prayer  was  not  that  these  powers  would  let 
him  alone  but  that  they  would  feed  him.  He  needed  food. 
The  powers  of  nature  could  help  him  or  hinder  him  in 
the  quest.  3  The  sun  could  help  the  plants  to  grow  or 
wither  them,  so  he  praved  that  the  great  nature  forces 
might  be  a  blessing  instead  of  a  curse.  He  believed  that 
the  great  nature  forces  were  under  the  control  of  certain 
divinities  and  to  them  he  addressed  his  pravers. 

1.  Harris.  Philosophical  Basis  of  Theism,  p.   ^52. 

2.  Bowne.  Philosophy  of  Theism,  p.  3. 

3.  Pfleiderer.      Philosophy  of  Religion,  vol.  Ill  p.   ig. 

Hegel  is  not  perfectly  fair  in  his  criticism  of  Schleiermacher's  defini- 
tion of  religion.  Hegel  remarks  that  according  to  Schleiermacher  a  dog 
would  possess  more  religion  than  man  for  the  sense  of  dependence  is  fully 
developed  in  the  dog,  but  Schleiermacher  adds,  that  "religion  is  an  inclination 
and  determination  of  our  sentiments  etc."  In  other  words  religion  is  an  inclina- 
tion to  God.      Schleiermacher,  Christliche  Glaubenslehre  p.  3. 

13 


Tvlor  gives  us  this  prayer  of  the  Khonds  to  the  earth 
goddess,  which  was  made  when  offering  a  human  sacrifice  to 
her:  "By  our  cattle,  our  Hocks,  our  pigs,  and  our  grain, 
wc  procured  a  victim  and  offered  a  sacrifice.  Do  you  en- 
rich   us.      Let   our  herds  he  so  numerous  that  they  cannot 

he    housed \N'e  are    ignorant  what  it  is  good  to  ask  tor. 

You  know  what  is  good  tor  us.  Give  it  to  us."'  He 
prayed  to  the  gods  of  nature  because  he  believed  that  the 
gods  founded  the  laws  of  nature  and  that  nature  must  obey 
the  commands  of  the  gods.  *  For  some  reason  that  is  not 
pertectly  clear,  man  selected  the  serpent  to  symbolize  these 
torces,  for  the  serpent  stands  for  a  great  many  things.  It 
represents  the  energy  of  the  sun,  the  fertility  of  the  river 
and  the  rain;  it  stands  tor  healing  and  wisdom,  and  also  for 
very  opposite  thoughts,  such  as  destruction  and   darkness. 

The  worship  of  the  serpent  may  be  said  to  be  almost 
the  first  effort  on  the  part  of  man  to  g;rasp  the  power  not 
himselt.  3  Trace  back  the  history  of  almost  any  people  to 
its  legendary  sources  and  you  will  find  serpents  in  the 
legends.  It  is  certainly  very  strange  that  such  a  creature 
as  the  serpent  should  have  had  such  a  hold  on  the  thought 
ot  primitive  peoples.  We  can  readily  understand  why  they 
worshipped  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  trees  and  the  rain; — 
but  why  the  serpent  ?  And  yet  the  fact  is,  that  serpent 
worship  was  as  important  as  the  worship  of  the  sun  ;  more 
than  that,  it  was  the  worship  of  the  sun.  It  symbolized 
the  lite-giving  power  of  the  sun  as  well  as  the  life-giving 
power  of  the  other  great  natural    forces. 

Hannibal,  in  his  oath  before  the  deities  of  Carthage 
and  Greece,  spoke  emphatically  of  the  "powers  of  the  sun, 
the  moon,  the  earth,  the  rivers,  the  meadows  and  the 
waters."  These  were  the  great  deities,  and  the  serpent  was 
associated  with  them  all,  representing  their  energy.  The 
worship  of  animals  had  a  local  significance,  but  the  worship 

1.  Tylor.      Anthropology,  p.  365. 

2.  Max  Mullcr.      Origin  and  Growth  of  Religion,      p.  243. 

3.  Ferguson.  Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.  1.  "Serpent  worship 
is  the  oldest  and  most  prevalent  of  all  those  forms  of  worship  through  which 
man  ever  attempted  to  reach  or  propitiate  the  divinity." 

14 


of  the  serpent  is  a  symbolical  worship  of  the  active  forces 
of  life  and  is  most  deeply  rooted  in  the  religious  history  of 
mankind. ' 

So  prominent  is  this  thought  and  so  deeply  rooted  in 
the  popular  mind  that  it  persists  in  spite  of  priestly  effort  to 
overthrow  it.  To  these  deities  the  people  pray  in  time  of 
trouble,  when  they  want  rain  for  their  crops.  This  is  true 
for  India.  It  is  not  to  the  great  gods  of  the  Brahmans  that 
the  people  pray.     It  is  true  for  Egypt  likewise.  =^ 

1.  Polybius.      VII,  4. 

2.  A.  H.  Sayce.      Serpent  worship  in  Ancient  and  Modern  Egypt. 

Contemporary  Review.      Oct.  1893. 
A.  H.  Sayce.     The   Religions  of  Ancient  Egypt  and  Babylon. 


15 


chapter    III 
Hhc  ra^tcal  tncantno  oX  the  serpent  symbol. 


The  serpent  symbol  has  also  a  radical  meaning:  although 
sometimes  it  seems  to  possess  very  opposite  meanings.  In 
one  place  it  is  in  intimate  relation  with  tree  worship,  in  an- 
other place  with  sun  worship;  but  throughout,  the  root  idea 
seems  to  be  the  creative  power  of  nature,  or  as  Squier  has 
defined  it,  "It  (the  serpent)  is  always  symbolical  of  the  in- 
vigorating or  active  energy  of  nature."  In  man,  the  serpent 
stands  for  desire.  In  India,  the  creative  idea  is  seen  in  the 
figure  of  Buddha  seated  upon  a  serpent,  representing  the 
thought  that  Buddha  has  conquered  desire.  It  is  also  seen 
in  the  serpent  that  stood  above  the  heads  of  the  Kings  of 
Egypt,  symbolizing  the  mystery  of  life,  i.  e.  the  monarch's 
power  in  giving  or  taking  away  life.  The  same  thought  is 
illustrated  in  the  picture  of  Vishnu  seated  on  an  immense 
serpent  as  the  giver  of  life. 

Trumbull  says,  "There  are,  indeed,  reasons  for  suppos- 
ing that  the  very  earliest  form  of  a  primitive  temple,  or 
sanctuary,  or  place  of  worship,  was  a  rude  doorway,  as 
covering  or  as  localizing  the  threshold  altar."  ' 

Primitive  peoples  regarded  the  threshold  as  sacred  be- 
cause it  symbolized  the  beginnings  of  life.  The  supersti- 
tious reverence  for  the  threshold  in  later  times  points  to  this 
interpretation.  The  intimate  relation  between  the  serpent 
and  the  threshold  is  seen  in  such  inscriptions  as  those  of 
Nebuchadrezzar  II.  *  These  inscriptions  relate  to  the  build- 
ing of  the  walls  of  Babylon;  they  refer  to  the  foundations, 
the  thresholds  and  the  guardians  of  the  thresholds.      He 

1.  Trumbull.      Threshold  Covenant,  p.   102. 

2.  Trumbull.      Threshold  Covenant,  pp.   109,  1  10, 

Willcins-  Hindu  Mythology,  p.  97. 

T.     quotes    from     Rawlinson's     Cuneiform     Inscriptions  of 
Western  Asia,  vol.  I.  p.  65. 

16 


says;  "on   the  threshold  of  the  gates  I  set  up  mighty  bulls 
of  bronze,  and  mighty  snakes  standing  upright." 

There  is  a  close  relation  between  the  Hebrew  words 
miphtan  (threshold)  and  pet  hen  (asp),  which  shows  that 
that,  which  is  symbolized  by  the  threshold,  is  likewise 
symbolized  by  the  serpent.  ^  Leland,  in  his  Etruscan 
Roman  Remains,  speaks  of  the  worship  of  Janus, — the 
solar  deity  of  the  door  and  guardian  of  the  sacred  mysteries, 
— as  connected  with  the  worship  of  the  serpent.  *  It  is 
very  evident  from  the  facts  presented  in  his  book  that  the 
worship  of  the  serpent  was  but  another  phase  of  the 
worship  of  the  threshold. 

Medusa,  the  most  fearful  of  the  three  Gorgons,  was 
once  a  beautiful  maiden,  but  Athena  changed  her  beauty 
into  something  fearful  to  look  upon;  her  hair  having  been 
changed  into  serpents,  because  she  became  by  "Poseidon, 
the  mother  of  Chrysaor  and  Pegasus  in  one  of  Athena's 
temples."  ^ 

Layard  speaks  of  a  service  he  saw  in  the  temple  of  the 
Yezidis,  near  Ancient  Nineveh.  Those  who  engaged  in 
the  worship,  when  prayers  were  ended,  marched  in  proces- 
sion, and  as  they  passed  the  right  side  of  the  doorway  lead- 
ing to  the  temple,  they  kissed  the  door  where  was  figured 
a  serpent.  4 

I  think  we  may  be  sure  of  this  fact,  that  with  all  the 
elusiveness  there  is  in  the  serpent  symbol,  the  root  idea  is 
this,  "the  invigorating,  active  energy  of  nature."  It  repre- 
sented the  mystery  of  life  and  it  symbolized  the  various 
forces  of  nature  as  they  bestowed  life  and  fertility. 


1 .  Trumbull.      Threshold  Covenant,  p.  233  note  3 . 

2.  Leland.  Etruscan  Roman  Remains,  p.   132. 

3.  Smith.  Classical  Dictionary  Art.  Gorgo  and  Gorgones. 
Trumbull    says   the  hair  of  serpents  was  given  to  her 
because  she  violated  the  threshold  convenant. 

4.  Layard.         Nineveh  and  Babylon,  pp.  302,  311. 

17 


CliaptcT    IV 
Zbc  serpent  an^  the  ?im. 

An  eniMein  that  one  may  see  in  India  today  is  the 
figure  of  a  man's  head  with  serpents  issuing  from  it. '  1  he 
head  stands  for  the  solar  disc  and  the  serpents  for  the  rays. 
This  is  one  of  the  symbols  of  the  naga  worshippers.  These 
naga  people  of  India  think  of  their  ancestors  as  deified  sun 
serpents.  They  are  the  "celestial  serpents  belonging  to 
Surya."  Man  has  a  number  of  symbols  for  the  sun;  e.  g. 
the  disc,  globe,  eagle,  goat,  horse,  hawk,  horns,  lotus,  ram, 
rosette,  scarab,  wheel,  cock,  trisele,  as  well  as  the  serpent.* 
Thev  all  in  their  own  way  show  forth  the  glory  and  power 
of  the  sun.  Frequently  these  symbols  are  combined,  so  as 
to  illustrate  in  one  single  figure  the  many  characteristics  of 
the  sun.  The  representation  of  the  sun  with  the  serpentine 
rays  noted  above  is  very  suggestive.  The  serpent  as  the 
symbol  of  the  sun  is  therefore  the  active,  outgoing,  invigor- 
ating energy  of  the  sun. 

In  Egypt,  the  asp — Uraeus — stood  for  sovereignty  and 
was  placed  on  Fharoah's  crown.  3  It  was  regarded  as  the 
protector  of  home  and  individuals.  This  serpent  figure 
was  not  alone  on  the  monarch's  crown  but  was  associated 
with  the  sun  disc,  sometimes  there  were  added  to  it  horns 
and  feathers,  the  whole  figure  picturing  the  king's  myste- 
rious power  over  life.  The  figure  of  the  serpent  with  the 
solar  disc  is  frequently  seen  over  a  hawk-headed  figure. 
Hawk-headed  figures  are  always  solar  deities.  The  hawk, 
probably,  had  the  same  meaning  in  Egvpt  that  it  had  in 
Greece,  for  Homer  relates  the  hawk  to  the  sun  and  calls  it 
the  "swift  messenger  of  Phoebus."  This  Uraeus  serpent 
of  Egypt  not  only  possessed  power  but  mysterious  power, 
the  power  of  vomiting  forth  flames  that  destroyed  the  king's 
enemies. 

I.      Oldham.      The  Sun  and  the  Serpent,  p.  39. 

Paraskara  Grihya  Sutra  II.   19,  9. 
z.      D'AIviclla.      The  Migration  of  Symbols,  pp.   177-203. 
3.      Wicdcrman.      The  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,   p.  252. 

Maspcro.      The  Dawn  of  Civilization,  p.   265. 

18 


The  serpent  Apep  represented  to  the  Egyptians  the 
very  opposite  thought. '  The  asp  was  allied  to  the  thought 
ot  life  and  light.  Solar  and  regal  emblems  were  associated 
with  it,  but  Apep  was  the  sign  of  darkness, — a  form  of 
Typhon,  the  enemy  of  the  sun.  In  the  Hymn  to  Amen 
Ra,  we  have  a  picture  of  Ra  passing  through  the  under- 
world. ^  When  he  reaches  the  seventh  compartment,  the 
serpent  Mehen,  the  enfolder,  is  coiled  around  the  cabin  of 
Ra.  Then  comes  the  sharpest  part  of  the  conflict, — the 
battle  against  the  Apep  Serpent.  The  serpent  is  finally 
conquered  and  pierced  with  knives.  This  is  the  serpent  of 
darkness.  There  are  asp-like  serpents  also  in  the  under- 
world. In  the  ninth  compartment,  according  to  the  same 
hymn,  there  are  fire-spitting  serpents, — Uraei.  These  light 
serpents  illuminate  the  path  of  Ra.  In  the  twelfth  com^part- 
ment,  too,  they  are  represented  as  spitting  out  light. 

The  following  is  from  the  Hymn  to  Amen  Ra;  pictur- 
ing the  two  serpents, — 

"Lord  of  the  everlasting,  maker  of  eternity. 
Lord  of  adorations,  dwelling  in  Thebes, 

Lord  of  the  Uraeus  crown,  exalted  by  the  two  feathers. 
Beautiful  of  diadem,  (exalted  one)  of  the  white  crown 
of  upper  Egypt, 

The  kingly  land  and  the  two  Uraei  are  his  (?) 

The  opposite  of  this  conception  of  the  serpent  follows: 

"Lord  of  rays,  making  light, 

The  gods  give  praises  unto  him. 
His  two  hands  give  gifts  to  him  that  loveth  him, 

He  casteth  down  his  enemies  by  flames  of  fire. 
His  eye  it  is  that  overthroweth  the  wicked, 

It  casteth  its  lance  at  the  devourer  of  Nu,  3 
It  causeth  the  serpent  to  spit  forth  what  it  hath  eaten." 

1.  Squier.  The  serpent  Symbol,  p.   169. 

2.  Wiederman.      The  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians, 

pp.  90,  91,   I  I  I- 1 13. 

3.  To  the  Egyptians  Nu  was  the  mighty  deep. 

Nut  was  the  sky. 
From  this  mighty  deep  all  things  are  produced. 
See  for  this  A.  Smythe  Palmer 

Babylonian  Influence  on  the  Bible. 

19 


Here  we  have  the  other  serpent  which  symbolizes  evil 
and  darkness,  the  serpent  Apcp.  In  the  Book  of  the  Dead, 
chapter  15,  we  read; — 

"Hail  to  thee  who  destroyest  thy  foes, 
And  annihilatcst  the  Apep  serpent  (darkness)." 

We  readily  see  that  the  serpent  stands  for  two  things 
in  Kgvpt;  it  symbolizes  the  good;  it  symbolizes  the  evil; 
the  predominant  thought,  however,  in  Egypt  is  that  the 
serpent  is  an  agathodaemon.  In  this  poem  the  thought  is 
similar  to  the  thought  in  the  Avesta, — the  conflict  of  light 
with  darkness. 

The  Vedas  likewise  tell  of  a  conflict  between  Indra  and 
Vritra  (Ahi).  Vritra  was  the  serpent  power  of  darkness. 
11-ie  account  in  the  Veda  is  this  :  "With  his  vast  destroy- 
ing thunderbolt,  Indra  struck  the  dark  mutilating  Vritra;  as 
the  trunks  of  trees  felled  by  the  axe  so  lies  Ahi  prostrate 
on  the  earth."'  Again  the  Veda  says:  "Thy  thunderbolt 
struck  ofl^  the  head  of  Vritra,  the  obstructor  of  heaven  and 
earth." 

The  Russians  have  a  similar  story,- the  conflict  between 
Byellog,  the  light  god,  and  Chernobog,  the  god  of  darkness.^ 

In  India,  the  naga  or  cobra  is  regarded  as  the  scared 
snake.  3  The  poison  of  the  cobra  de  capello  is  most  deadly, 
yet  the  Hindu  will  never  kill  one  because  of  its  sacred 
character,  and  strange  to  say,  this  most  deadly  serpent  is 
regarded  as  a  protector.  This  hooded  serpent  symbolizes 
the  sun.  "The  Ahi  of  the  Rig  Veda  and  the  Azi  of  the 
Avesta  represent  chiefs  of  the  sun-worshipping  people  of 
India  whose  emblem  is  the  many-headed  serpent."  •*  Surya, 
the  sun  god  of  the  Hindoos,  is  pictured  with  a  canopy  over 
his  head  formed  of  the  hood  of  the  seven  headed  naga.  5 

There    is    at    Abury,    Wiltshire,    England,    a  serpent 
temple  that  is  evidently  a  representation  of  the  serpent  with 

1.  Rig  Veda  1.  XXXll.  8.  XXXVII.  8. 

2.  A.  S.   Palmer      Bahvlonian  Influence  etc.  p.  22. 

3.  Oldham.      Sun  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.  29. 

4.  Oldham.      Sun  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.  41. 

5.  Oldham.      Sun  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.  47. 

20 


serpents  are  represented  on  either  side  of  the  circle  instead 
of  passing  out  of  it.  In  China,  on  the  arches  of  Pekin, 
there  is  frequently  seen  the  picture  of  a  sacred  ring 
between  two  serpents.  In  Persia,  the  sun  god  Mithras  is 
represented    as    circled    by   a    serpent.  The  compound 

symbol  of  the  sun,  serpent  and  wings,  was  upon  every 
temple  and  almost  every  monument  in  Egypt.  The 
passage  of  the  sun  through  the  Signs  of  the  Zodiac,  being 
an  oblique  path,  seemed  to  the  vivid  imagination  of  the 
ancients  like  the  trail  of  a  serpent.  The  ancient  mind  saw 
the  serpent  form  in  almost  every  energy  of  nature,  whether 
good  or  evil. 

In  the  Hermetic  philosophy,  the  three  fold  symbol  ot 
the  circle,  serpent,  and  wings  was  regarded  as  an  emblem 
of  consecration.  The  circle  stood  for  the  simple  essence 
of  God;  the  serpent  for  the  vivifying  power  of  God;  and 
the  wings  for  the  penetrating  power  of  God;  in  other  words 
it  represented  a  trinity  of  Father,  Word,  and  Love,  or  the 
Supreme  Being  as  Creator  and  Preserver. 

According  to  Rawlinson,  the  Assyrians  thought  of  the 
circle  as  the  emblem  of  eternity,  the  wings  as  expressing 
omnipotence  and  the  figure  of  a  man  as  symbolizing 
wisdom.^  The  Assyrians  and  Persians  modified  the  original 
Egyptian  symbol  by  substituting  the  figure  of  a  man  in  the 
place  of  the  serpent. 

It  is  probable  that  the  winged  globe  was  the  work  of 
Egyptian  Priests.  An  inscription  at  Edfu  says  it  was  Toth 
himself  who  caused  it  to  be  placed  above  the  entrances  to 
all  the  temples  in  order  to  commemorate  the  victory  won 
by  Horus  over  Set,  i.  e.  by  the  principle  of  light  and  good 
over  that  of  darkness  and  evil. 

The  Phoenicians  probably  obtained  their  idea  of  the 
winged  globe  from  Egypt,  and  it  became  a  very  great  sym- 
bol to  them.^  They  placed  it  on  coins,  gems,  bowls,  bas- 
reliefs,  and  on  the' lintels  of  temples.  They  niodified  it 
so  that  the  Phoenician  symbol  can  be  readily  distinguished 

1.  G.    Rawlinson.      The  Five  Great  Monarchies,  II.  p.  231. 

2.  D'Alviella.  The  Migration  of  Symbols,  p.  208. 

23 


from  the  Egyptian  original.  In  the  Phoenician  symbol 
the  heads  of  the  serpents  appear  at  the  lower  part  of  the 
globe;  while  the  tails  appear  at  the  top  and  have  the  ap- 
pearance of  horns. 

These  winged  discs  are  found  also  in  Assyria  and 
Babylonia.'  D'Alviella  says  they  certainly  originated  in  the 
valley  of  the  Nile  for  "it  is  there  alone  that  they  can  be 
traced  back  to  their  simple  and  intelligible  elements;  the 
Disc,  sparrow-hawk,  the  goat,  and  the  uraeus  serpents. 
Morever — whilst  in  Egypt  the  Winged  Globe  is  met  with 
on  monuments  dating  from  the  sixth  dynasty  onwards — it 
would  be  vainly  sought  for  in  Mesepotamia  under  the 
first  Chaldean  Empire  and  even  under  the  first  Assyrian 
mpire. 

The  Persians  probably  received  the  figure  from  the 
Babylonians  when  Cyrus  overthrew  the  Second  Babylonian 
Empire  in  538  B.  C.  and  Ahura  Mazda  himself  took  the 
place  of  the  serpent  in  the  midst  of  the  winged  circle,  but 
one  sees  still  the  vestige  of  the  serpent  in  the  little  streamers 
that  fall  from  the  circle. - 

1.  D'Alviella.      The  Migration  of  Symbols,  p.  214. 

2.  D'Alviella.      The  Migration  of  Symbols,   Figure  121,   p.  219. 


24 


the  solar  disc.  This  temple  consists  of  first,  a  circle  of  up- 
right stones,  equally  distant  from  each  other;  then  from  the 
circle  two  avenues  in  opposite  directions,  one  leading  to  the 
head,  the  other  to  the  tail  of  the  serpent.  From  the  circle 
to  the  head  there  are  one  hundred  stones,  and  from  the 
circle  to  the  tail  one  hundred  stones.  In  all,  this  temple 
covers  an^area  of  twenty-eight  acres  and  is  a  mile  long.  It 
is,  therefore,  like  a  monster  serpent  creeping  over  hill  and 
valley.  '  Another  similar  structure  in  England  is  at  Stanton. 
This  temple  is  not  as  large  as  the  one  at  Abury.  A  temple 
thaj:  was  probably  seven  miles  long  in  its  original  condition 
is  found  at  Westmoreland. 

England  it  not  alone  in  the  possession  of  these  temple 
remains.  There  are  evidences  of  similar  temple  ruins  in 
Ohio  and  Iowa.  The  greatest  of  these  is  to  be  found  in 
Brittany,— in  the  temple  of  Karnac, — which  structure  can 
be  traced  for  eleven  miles.  ^  Deane  estimates  that  there 
must  have  been  ten  thousand  stones  in  the  original  struc- 
ture^. The  general  direction  of  the  temple,  though  crooked, 
is  trom  east  to  west.  Near  this  serpent  there  is  a  slight 
elevation, — as  is  the  case  also  with  the  one  near  Aburv, 
England, — commanding  a  view  of  the  serpent,  where  the 
sacred  tire  was  kindled  to  the  solar  deitv. 

The  primitive  worship  of  Britain  was  that  of  the 
Druids.  They  worshipped  the  sun  as  svmbolized  by  the 
serpent.     The  Druid's  title  was: 

'T  am  a  Druid,  I  am  an  architect, 
I  am  a  prophet,  I  am  a  serpent."  3 

In  the  mythology  of  the  Druids,  there  is  a  story  of -a 
goddess,  Cerdiwen, — probably  the  Grecian  Ceres, — whose 
car  was  drawn  by  serpents.  Possibly  Stonehenge  was  the 
scene  of  serpent  rites.  Deane  thinks  that  the  work  of  St. 
Patrick  in  Ireland  was  the  driving  out  of  serpent  worshippers. 

Serpent  worship  seems  to  have  had  a  great  following 
on  the  East  coast  of  Scotland.     There  is  a  great  number  of 

1.  Deane.  The  Worship  of  the  Serpent,  p.  330. 
Squier.  The  Serpent  Symbol,  p.  232. 

2.  Squier.  The  Serpent  Symbol,  p.  137. 

3.  Deane.  The  Worship  of  the  Serpent,  pp.  241,  242. 

21 


megalithic  monuments  there,  on  many  of  which  is  carved  a 
serpent.  So  prominent  is  this  figure,  with  others,  that  we 
can  scarcely  doubt  that  it  was  an  object  of  worship. '  There 
are  some  twenty-three  representations  of  the  serpent  on 
these  stones.  As  the  monuments  are  similar  to  those  in 
England,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  worship  was  that  of  the 
solar  deity. 

The  principal  deity  of  the  Aztec  Pantheon  was  the 
sun  serpent,  Tezcatlepoca.  *  He  was  the  great  Creator,  and 
sustained  the  same  relation  to  the  Aztec  faith,  as  Brahma 
did  to  the  Hindu.  His  wife  was  Cihuacohuatli,  "the  great 
mother"  of  gods  and  men.  In  their  worship,  the  Mexicans 
divided  their  thought  of  the  sun.  The  sun  in  the  fair 
season  was  Uitzilopochtli,  whom  they  worshipped  in  May 
at  the  beginning  of  vegetation,  in  August  when  vegetation 
was  at  its  fulness,  and  in  December  when  the  god  of  the 
fair  season  died;  then  Tezcatlepoca,  the  god  of  winter,  took 
his  place.  Uitzilopochtli,  which  means  "Humming  bird  to 
the  left,"  was  the  divine  messenger  of  spring.  He  was 
born  of  a  serpent  mother,  Caoutlicue,  who  lived  near  Coat- 
epec,  the  "mountain  of  serpents."  Caoutlicue  meant  to 
them  the  creeping  of  spring  vegetation.  The  sun  was  the 
great  god  of  the  Mexicans,  and  to  the  present  day  it  is  said 
that  the  people  in  secluded  parts  of  Mexico,  throw  a  kiss  to 
the  sun  before  they  enter  the  church. 

The  hierogram  of  Egypt  is  a  striking  illustration  of 
the  relation  of  the  sun  to  the  serpent.3  The  sun  is  re- 
presented in  this  figure,  as  a  circle  associated  with  a  serpent 
and  wings.  The  verse  in  the  Book  of  Malachi: — "The 
Sun  of  Righteousness  shall  arise  with  healing  in  his  wings," 
is  probably  founded  on  this  figure.  It  is  a  significant  fact 
that  the  hierogram  is  not  only  the  thought  of  one  people, 
but  is  found  among  the  Druids, the  Persians,  and  the  Chinese, 
as  well  as  among  the  Egyptians,  Greeks  and  Romans.  In 
China,   it  does   not   present  exactly   the  same  form.     The 

1 .  Ferguson.      Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.  3  i . 

2.  Reville.         Native  Religions  of  Mexico  and  Peru, — Lecture  II, 

pp.  49-59. 

3.  Deane.  The  Worship  of  the  Serpent,  p.   51. 
Bryant.          Antient  Mythology,  —  Vol.  II. 
Squier.           Serpent  Symbol,  p. 247. 

22 


Chapter  V 
Zl)c  eetpent  an&  tbc  eao. 


Another  conception  of  the  ancient  world  was  the 
mundane  egg  and  the  serpent.  In  ancient  mythological 
thought,  the  egg  stood  for  primitive  chaos,  the  condition 
of  all  things  before  creation.  ^  In  the  mundane  egg  was  the 
essence  of  all  things.  The  serpent  was  associated  with  the 
egg  because  it  represented  creative  energy. 

In  Egypt,  Cneph,  the  creator  of  all  things,  was 
pictured  as  the  serpent,  holding  the  egg  in  his  mouth.  It 
was  from  this  egg  that  Phtha,  the  creator,  came  forth. 
Cneph  was  represented  as  a  serpent  with  a  ram's  head. 
Phtha  was  to  the  Egyptians  what  Brahma  was  to  the 
Hindus. 

The  Hindus  believe  that  Brahm,  desiring  to  produce 
creatures  by  an  emanation  from  his  own  essence,  produced 
a  golden  egg,  blazing  like  a  thousand  stars,  in  which  was 
born  Brahma,  the  great  parent  of  all  rational  beings. 

Protagones,  the  father  of  the  Greeks,  likewise  issued 
from  the  mundane  egg.  In  Hindu  thought,  the  egg  was 
an  emanation  from  Brahm,  in  Greek  thought,  the  egg  pro- 
ceeded from  Cronos,  before  whom  there  existed  no  being. 
He  is  represented  in  Orphic  mythology  by  the  serpent 
symbol. 

The  egg  figures  in  the  mythology  of  Japan,  but  it  is 
associated  with  the  bull  rather  than  with  the  serpent;  of 
course  with  practically  the  same  symbolic  meaning. 

On  the  island  of  Cyprus,  there  is  a  stone  vase  thirty 
feet  in  circumference  which  is  shaped  like  an  egg,  but  on  its 
side  there  is  the  figure  of  a  bull  instead  of  a  serpent.  * 

1.  Squier.     The  Serpent  Symbol,  p.   150, 

2.  D'Alviella,  The  Migration  of  Symbols,  p.  209.     This  vase  was 
found  at  Citium,  in  the  island  of  Cyprus  by  General  Cesnola. 

25 


Chapter   VI 
Xlbc  serpent  an^  the  rtrer. 

Those  who  see  in  the  serpent  only  a  sun  serpent,  could 
study  with  great  profit  the  river  serpent;  for  the  serpent, 
representing  as  it  does,  the  invigorating  power  in  nature, 
symbolizes  the  fertilizing  power  of  the  river  quite  as  much 
as  the  life-giving  power  of  the  sun.  We  have  already 
noted  the  basic  thought  in  the  symbol,— the  creative,  invi- 
gorating energv  of  nature,  l^he  serpent  represents  that 
energy  wherever  that  energy  is  manifested,  and  in  our 
study,  we  must  keep  that  thought  continually  in  mind.  I 
personally  believe  that  the  river  suggested  the  symbol,  and 
that  long  before  it  marked  the  sun's  energy,  it  stood  for  the 
fertility  of  the  river. 

The    imaginative  mind  of  man  in  his  childhood  could 
see    the    serpentine    form    in  the  river  as  easily  as  he  could 
see  it  in  the    Milky    Way.        Keary   in  his   "Outlines  of 
Primitive    Belief"     claims     that    the    river    suggested    the 
serpent  symbol.      He  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  in    almost 
every  case  the  serpent  stands  for  the  river,  and  he  presents 
very    strong    evidence    which  shows    he  is,  in    the    main, 
correct.'     The  Greeks  and    Romans   believed  in  Oceanus, 
which  was  to  them  the  earth-encircling  river.     The  whole 
Indo-European  family  had  a  similar  thought  regarding  this 
river.      The  difference  between  a  river  and  an  ocean  lies  in. 
this,    that   the  river  is  continually  flowing,  and  the  ocean  is 
not.     This  difference    was   easily  remedied  by  the  unscien- 
tific and  imaginative   minds    of  our  early   ancestors.     The 
ocean-river  flowed  into  itself.     The  Scandinavian  Jormung- 
vandr    serpent  represents  this  idea,  for  in  the  mythology  of 
this  people  he  is  said  to  rest  at  the  bottom  of  the  Midgard 
sea  with  his  tail  in  his  mouth.      What  is  this  serpent  but  the 
all-encircling  river  flowing  into  itselt?     The  river  is  pictured 
as  flowing  through  all  time. 

I.      Keary.      Outlines  of  Primitive  Beliet,  pp.  71  fF. 
Keary.      Mythology  of  the  Eddas,  pp.   17  ff. 


o 


6 


"Free  shall  it  run,  all  ages  through, 
On  it  no  ice  shall  be." 

So  also  the  Greek  Oceanus  was  thought  to  flow  on 
forever.  In  the  cosmogony  of  Egypt,  Chaldea,  Greece,  and 
India,  the  earth  was  believed  to  be  surrounded  by  an  ocean 
or  celestial  river,  whose  circular  course  was  compared  to  a 
serpent. 

In  the  contest  of  Apollo  with  the  python,  the  difficulty 
arose  because  the  fountain  goddess,  Telephusa,  was  jealous 
of  the  sun  god,  and  as  a  result,  the  python  was  destroyed 
by  him.  This  is  the  most  plausible  explanation, — the 
waters  at  Delphi  were  dried  up  by  the  heat  of  the  sun,  and 
the  drying  up  of  the  water  was  the  death  of  the  serpent. 
Ovid  says  that  the  python  was  born  after  the  deluge  of 
Deucalion.  The  python  again  is  pictured  as  devouring 
rivers.  What  is  this  but  the  tributaries  of  the  rivers  that 
he  devours? 

We  can  with  this  interpretation  see  how  serpent  wor- 
ship was  associated  with  the  worship  of  the  tree.  The  tree 
and  the  river  symbolized  the  reciprocal  principles  of  nature. 
It  is  very  natural  to  think  of  the  primitive  man  as  worship- 
ping the  tree  because  of  the  greatness  of  the  primeval  forests.' 
The  serpentine  river  was  the  cause  of  the  fertility  of  the 
primeval  forests,  and  naturally  both  became  objects  of 
reverence,  and  from  the  worship  of  the  river,  the  serpent 
was  used  as  a  symbol  of  it. 

"I  cannot  pretend  to  account  for  their  (serpents)  primi- 
tive worship,"  says  Keary,  "only  I  take  it  for  certain,  that 
at  a  very  early  time,  rivers  became,  through  symbolism, 
confounded  with  serpents."* 

There  is,  then,  an  intimate  relation  between  the  wor- 
ship of  the  tree  and  the  serpent  in  primitive  thought;  an 
individual  tree  or  a  grove  of  trees  was  an  object  of  worship 
quite  as  much  as  the  serpent,  the  tree  being  regarded  as  the 
symbol  of  the  feminine.3  In  Egypt,  the  worship  of  the  ser- 
pent   is    associated    with    sun  worship,  but  the  tree  has  not 

I.     W.  Robertson  Smith.      Religion  of  the  Semites,  p.  169. 

2       Keary.  Outlines  of  Primitive  Beliefs,    p.  7  5- 

3!      Trumbull.  Threshold  Covenant,  p.   230, 

27 


been  lost  sight  of.  In  Thebes,  in  the  tomb  of  Ra-zeser- 
seneb,  a  peasant  is  represented  as  making  his  morning 
prayer  to  the  sycamore  tree,  the  sycamore  tree  was  on  the 
borders  of  his  corn  field.'  This  was  not  a  state  religion  but 
a  popular  religion.  Tree  and  serpent  worship  seemed  to  be 
part  ot  the  religious  inheritance  of  the  people. 

"The  state  religion,"  says  Sayce,  "was  forced  to  em- 
body this  faith  (of  serpents)  as  Christianity  to  legalize  the 
old  worship  of  springs." 

At  Qurna,  in  Egypt,  in  the  quarries,  there  is  a  figure 
of  a  cow  and  a  cobra  facing  each  other  with  a  table  between 
them  upon  which  are  offerings.  The  worshipper  is  repre- 
sented at  the  side.  The  cobra  has  horns,  but  more  than 
that,  he  has  a  solar  disc  over  his  head,  and  behind  him  is 
the  branch  of  a  tree.  It  is  very  evident  therefore  that,  be- 
hind the  animal  worship  in  Egypt,  there  was  a  deeply  root- 
ed nature  worship  symbolized  by  the  tree,  the  serpent,  and 
the  sun. 

The  relation  of  the  serpent  to  the  Nile  is  seen  in  the 
primitive  thought  of  the  Egyptians,  that  the  Nile  god  in- 
habited a  chamber  which  had  the  form  of  a  serpent.  In 
this  chamber,  there  was  a  small  opening  at  the  end  through 
which  he  sent  forth  the  river. 

It  is  probable,  however,  that  the  thought  of  the  ser- 
pent as  the  symbol  of  good  and  evil  was  a  borrowed  con- 
ception from  Babylonia.*  In  Babylon,  Tiamat  was  the 
great  dragon  of  the  deep,  who  aimed  to  destroy  the  gods, 
but  Mardulc  (Merodach),  the  son  of  Ea,  the  good  god, 
championed  the  gods,  gained  the  victory,  and  the  dragon, 
Tiamat,  was  slain.  What  was  the  meaning  of  Tiamat  ? 
The  Persian  Gulf  once  reached  to  Central  Babylonia. 3 
The  land  was  so  low  there,  that  the  Euphrates  frequently 
over-flowed  its  banks,  which  meant  great  destruction.  The 
great  deep  was  not  then  a  source  of  blessing,  but  an  evil, 
and  was  represented  by  Tiamat.  The  myth  of  Tiamat 
afterwards    became    abstract,    and    was  generally  applied  to 

1.  Sayce.  Religion  of  Ancient  Egypt  and  Babylonia,  p,  206. 

2.  Murison.      Mythical  Serpents  of  Hebrew  Literature,  p.  7,  note. 

3.  Murison.      The  Mythical  Serpents  ot  Hebrew  Literature,  p.  7. 

28 


evil.  So  much  for  the  origin  of  the  story.  In  time,  it  was 
appropriated  by  other  peoples  and  was  applied  to  sun 
myths. 

The  Hebrews  regarded  the  ocean  as  a  serpent  monster, 
—probably  a  borrowed  conception  from  Babylonia.  The 
sea  seemed  to  them  an  unregenerate,  disobedient  serpent 
monster.  The  heavens  were  obedient  but  not  so  the  sea. 
(Jer.  5:22.  Job  9:8.  Job  38:8.) 

The  Egyptians  probably  borrowed  this  Babylonian 
myth,  and  adapted  it  to  their  needs,  so  the  desert  became 
Tiamat  to  them.  Tiamat  was  also  a  good  principle  to 
Babylonia.  The  overflow  of  the  river  was  a  benefit  as  well 
as  a  disaster; — it  gave  new  soil,  and  therefore  meant  fertility.' 

Ea  was  another  conception  of  the  great  deep.  He  was 
symbolized  by  the  seven-headed  serpent.  Merodach,  the 
sun  god,  the  creator,  was  the  son  of  Ea;  for  he  arose  out  of 
the  great  deep, — the  first  born  of  the  deep.^  To  the  Chal- 
dean mind,  the  world  was  "balanced  on  the  bosom  of  the 
eternal  waters."  Ea,  therefore,  was  the  sovereign  of  the 
waters.  The  same  deity  was  the  god  of  wisdom  and  gave 
warning  of  the  flood  to  the  Chaldean  Noah.     (Adrakhasis.)3 

As  in  the  case  of  India,  Greece  and  Palestine,  springs 
were  sacred  to  serpents,  or  the  jinns  manifested  themselves 
as  serpents. 

There  are  other  theories  which  attempt  to  account  for 
the  serpent  cult.  There  is  the  attempt  of  Schwarz  who 
believes  that  the  lightning  must  have  suggested  the  serpent 
as  a  symbol.4  We  shall  speak  of  this  theory  later.  Then 
there  is  the  theory  that  the  symbol  was  suggested  by  the 
character  of  the  serpent  itself  Certain  facts  regarding  the 
serpent  are  considered  as  supporting  the  theory;  for  example, 
serpents  are  found  everywhere,  they  are  stealthy  in  move- 
ment, their  bite  is  deadly,  they  possess  neither  arms  nor 
legs,   nor  any  of  the  usual  appliances  of  locomotion  and  yet 

1.  Cox.  Aryan  Mythology,  vol.   11.  p.  351. 

2.  Oldham.         Sun  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.   185. 
S*»»»-H'i  3.      Chaldean.       Account  of  Genesis,  p.  279. 

4.      Brinton.  Myths  of  the  New  World,  pp.   117,   125. 

29 


they  move  with  singuhir  celerity.'  It  is  likewise  suggested 
that  as  the  serpent  is  the  most  mysterious  being  in  nature, 
it  very  naturally  became  the  symbol  of  the  most  mysterious 
things  in  lite.  The  fact  that  the  serpent  can  exist  for  an 
indefinite  time  without  food,  his  ability  to  spring  and 
instantaneously  embrace  his  foe,  his  dreaded  poison,  his 
power  to  renew  his  youth,  all  these  features  conspired  to 
make  him  an  object  of  dread  and  worship. 

This  theory  maintains  that  serpent  worship  originated 
in  the  fear  the  ancients  had  of  these  creatures,  but  the  basic 
idea  in  serpent  worship  is  not  fear:  the  serpent  is  a  symbol 
of  fertility,  and  the  ancients  worshipped  it  for  that  reason 
and  not  because  they  feared  it.*  The  serpent  is  a  symbol 
of  evil  as  well  as  good  but  the  root  idea  in  serpent  worship 
is  fertility  and  therefore  the  serpent  at  the  very  start  was  a 
symbol  of  blessing.  The  cause  of  the  fertility  of  the  land 
were  the  rivers,  the  torrents,  and  the  rain  clouds;  and  they 
all  were  symbolized  by  the  serpent.  The  great  river  seem- 
ed like  a  living  thing  to  these  uncivilized  peoples  and  its 
sinuous  course  seemed  like  a  great  serpent.  This  great 
serpent  river  fertilized  the  trees  along  its  bank  and  therefore 
was  worshipped  as  a  great  benefactor  to  man. 

1.  Testimony  of  Sanchoniathon   quoted  by    Eusebius,    Praeparatio 

Evangelica,  p.  40. 

2,  Ferguson.      Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.  3. 


30 


Chapter   VII 
Zl)c  serpent  anb  tbe  torrent. 


To  primitive  people  the  mountain  torrent  seemed  like 
a  great  serpent  or  dragon  and  so  they  called  it.  In  Russian 
folk  songs,  the  serpent  stood  for  the  mountain  spring  tor- 
rent.' Norka  was  the  great,  winged,  many-headed  serpent 
that  inhabited  caverns. 

There  is  a  legend  of  a  cooper  of  Lucerne  who  fell  into 
a  pit,  and  spent  the  winter  there  in  company  with  two 
dragons.  They  took  flight  as  the  winter  passed,  which 
meant  that  the  torrents  began  to  flow  again  after  the  winter. 

Colossae  was  delivered  from  an  inundation  by  the 
action  of  the  Archangel  Michael  who  conquered  the  dragon 
and  opened  a  chasm  for  the  waters.* 

The  fountain  at  Delphi,  which  was  represented  by  the 
Python,  was  a  rapid  torrent.3 

The  Lernean  hydra  which  Hercules  overcame  was 
probably  the  torrent  serpent,  and  the  Hebrew  Tannin,  or 
Leviathan  of  the  Psalms,  a  waterspout. 

A  torrent,  in  Switzerland,  is  called  a  drach  (dragon); 
and  in  the  traditions' of  the  people,  dragons  inhabited  the 
mountains;  these   dragons   were  the    mountain    torrents. 

Wild  torrents  of  water  were  symbolized  as  dragons  in 
ancient  Babylonia;  and,  as  A.  S.  Palmer  says,  this  "dragon 
serpent  or  destructive  monster  has  analogies  far  and  wide  in 
the  folklore  of  other  nations." 

1.  Ralston.       Russian  Folk  Tales,  pp.  65,  66,  115. 

2.  Lightfoot.    Appendix  to  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  p.  68,  note  2. 

p.  70,  note  3. 

3.  A.  Smythe  Palmer.  Babylonian  Influence  on  the  Bible, pp.  1 8,  89. 
See  also  Keary's  Outlines,  p.  74. 

31 


The  Ojibiways,  the  Algonkins,  and  the  Iroquois  of 
America  had  the  same  thought  in  their  legends  of  the  lake 
serpent.  To  them  the  storms  of  the  lake  were  caused  by 
this  serpent. 

Lake  serpents  are  familiar  figures  in  Irish  folk-lore. 
In  Thibet,  rivers,  springs  and  lakes  are  guarded  by  serpents.' 

Robertson  Smith  speaks  of  the  superstitious  reverence 
the  Semite  has  for  woods  and  running  water,  "the  fountain 
and  the  tree  were  not  simply  the  place  which  the  deity 
frequents  but  the  living  embodiments  of  the  divine  pre- 
sence."* The  Arabs  regard  medicinal  springs  as  guarded  by 
jinn,  and  these  were  generally  of  serpent  form.  The  move- 
ment of  the  fountain  and  the  little  wriggling  streams  about 
it  probably  suggested  the  serpent  idea. 

1.  A.  S.  Palmer.      Babylonian  Influence  on  the  Bible,  p.  91. 
Brinton.  Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.   113. 

See  for  Thibet.    Oldham.      Sun  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.  203. 

2.  W.  Robertson  Smith.      The  Religion  of  the  Semites,  p.   153. 


32 


Chapter   VIII 
Uhe  serpent  an&  the  clou&. 

It  is  a  primitive  conception  that  the  serpent  has  great 
power  over  rain.  Not  only  was  this  a  thought  of  the 
people  of  the  past,  but  uncultivated  races  of  the  world  today 
believe  certain  snake  ceremonies  will  bring  the  wished-for 
rain. 

On  this  feature  of  serpent  worship,  Keary,  speaking  of 
Ahi  and  Vritra,  says,  that  in  the  Vedic  Hymns,  they  seem 
to  be,  symbolically,  clouds,  but  that  originally  they  were 
rivers  before  they  became  clouds,  and  afterwards  they  were 
transferred  from  earth  to  heaven.'  It  would  seem  that  the 
rivers  and  the  torrents  suggested  the  symbolism  of  the  ser- 
pent, and  that  at  a  very  early  time,  rivers  became  through 
gymbolism  confounded  with  serpents. 

The  primitive  man  first  saw  the  serpent  in  the  river, 
and  then  saw  the  celestial  serpent  in  the  clouds,  as  in  the 
case  of  Persia,  where  the  sky  is  described  under  the  form 
of  a  serpent.^  Then  the  Egyptians  thought  of  the  universe 
under  the  form  of  a  serpent  with  his  tail  in  his  mouth,  the 
scales  representing  the  stars.  The  eclipse  of  the  sun,  to  the 
Chinese,  is  caused  by  the  dragon,  and  they  indulge  in  all 
sorts  of  noises  to  frighten  him  away.  The  rainbow,  m 
Persia,  was  believed  to  be  the  serpent  blowing  from  under- 
ground.3  But  back  of  all  this  symbolism,  is  the  basic 
thought  that  the  active  energy  of  nature  is  that  which  is 
symbolized  by  the  serpent,— and  the  basis  of  that  thought 
is  the  river. 

The  serpent,  therefore,  is  worshipped  as  the  giver  of 
rain.  The  Chinese  so  regard  their  dragon.  Martin  speaks 
of  witnessing  "a  long  procession  of  country  people  enter  the 
courtyard   of  the    city  prefect,— 'What  is  the  object  of  the 

1.  Keary.  Outlines  of  Primitive  Beliefs,  p.  7  5- 

2.  Eusebius.  Praeparatio  Evangelica, 
Squier.  The  Serpent  Symbol,  p.   156. 

3.  Crooke.  The  Folk  Lore  of  India  II,  p.  144. 

33 


procession?*  he  asked.  'We  are  praying  for  rain,*  they 
replied.  *We  have  caught  the  dragon  king  and  are  bring- 
ing him  to  receive  the  worship  of  the  magistrates.  There 
he  is  in  the  palanquin.  You  can  see  him  for  yourself  "' 
And  he  was,  sure  enough,  in  an  earthen  vessel, — a  water 
lizard,  four  inches  long.  It  was  the  avatar  of  the  dragon 
king,  and  the  prefect  knelt  and  worshipped. 

Rain  in  the  East  is  almost  like  the  gift  of  the  gods, 
and  therefore  the  dragon  in  China  is  worshipped  because  it 
is  the  giver  of  rain.  In  times  of  drought,  special  offerings 
are  made  to  it.  The  general  time  for  such  petitions  is  in 
the  spring  and  fall. 

In  India,  the  serpent  is  regarded  as  the  giver  of  rain 
and  so  is  worshipped.  In  the  Vedic  period,  the  watery  at- 
mosphere was  personified  under  the  name  of  Indra.^  It 
was  the  deified  physical  force  that  was  the  most  favored 
object  of  adoration  because  of  the  longings  that  the  Indian 
agriculturist  had  for  rain.  Cox  thus  represents  the  battle 
of  Indra  with  the  great  throttling  serpent;  "Whenever  the 
rain  is  shut  up  in  the  clouds  the  dark  power  is  in  revolt 
against  Dyaus  and  Indra.  In  the  rumblings  of  the  thunder, 
while  the  drought  still  sucks  out  the  life  in  the  earth,  are 
heard  the  mutterings  of  their  hateful  enemy.  In  the  light- 
ning flashes,  which  precede  the  outburst  of  the  pent-up  wat- 
ers, are  seen  the  irresistible  spears  of  the  god,  who  is  attack- 
ing the  throttling  serpent  in  his  den,  and  in  the  serene 
heavens  which  shone  out  when  the  deluging  clouds  are 
passed  away,  men  behold  the  face  of  the  mighty  deity  who 
was  their  friend. "3  The  serpent  therefore  had  the  power 
over  the  clouds, — sometimes  he  was  the  giver  of  rain,  some- 
times simply  the  storer  of  rain.  Vritra  or  Ahi  was  the 
throttling  serpent  that  hid  away  the  rain  clouds,  Indra 
throttled  him  and  thus  gave  to  the  land  the  beneficent  rain. 
The  Veda  says  in  the  conflict  of  Indra  with  Vritra  (the  ser- 
pent) that  "neither  the  lightning  nor  the  thunder  (of 
Vritra),  nor  the  rain  which  he  showered,  nor  the  thunder- 
bolt   harmed    Indra    when    he   and  Ahi  (the  serpent)  con- 

1.  W.  A.  P.  Martin.  C)'cle  of  Cathay,  pp.  83,  313. 

2.  M.  Monicr  Williams.      Indian  Wisdom,  p.   13. 

3.  Wake.  Serpent  Worship  and  Other  Essays,  p.  85. 

o4 


tended."'  India,  at  the  present  day,  especially  northern 
India,  has  great  faith  in  the  power  of  the  nagas  (serpents) 
to  send  rain.  They  are  therefore  propitiated  to  send  it  or 
to  check  it  if  it  rains  in  excess.^ 

Chinese  Buddhists  tell  the  story  of  a  naga  king  whom 
Buddha  visited.  The  serpent  King  instead  of  being  con- 
verted to  his  teachings  sent  a  terrible  rain  storm. 

There  is  a  weird  and  horrible  ceremony  held  every  two 
years  by  the  Moki  Indians  of  Arizona  in  which  serpents 
are  handled  and  danced  with  because  of  their  power  over 
the  rain. 3  This  section  of  Arizona  is  more  or  less  arid,  and 
this  snake  dance  is  thought  to  have  some  persuasive  power 
over  the  elements.  It  is  difficult  to  find  a  cause  for  such  a 
conception  unless  it  be  this;  that  the  river  first  suggested 
the  thought  of  the  serpent  and  that  afterwards  the  serpent 
became  the  symbol  for  fertility. 

The  serpents  themselves  must  have  added  other  ideas 
not  found  in  the  river.  The  hissing  of  the  serpent  pro- 
bably suggested  the  serpent's  power  over  the  wind,  and  it 
might  naturally  be  concluded  that  the  wind  was  really  the 
hissing  of  the  great  Father  Serpent. 

Hough  tells  us  of  a  Wolpi  farmer  who  was  bitten  by 
a  rattle-snake  while  in  his  corn  field.4  After  a  great  deal  of 
suffering,  and  after  heroic  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  Indian 
doctors  and  the  white  people,  he  recovered.  Then  it  was 
that  the  snake  society  told  him  that  he  must  become  a 
snake  priest,  because  the  snake  had  favored  him.  These 
people  call  themselves  Hopis,  though  the  name  Moki,  ap- 
plied by  outsiders,  seems  to  cling  to  them.  They  are  a 
primitive  people,  and  primitive  people  have,  universally,  a 
high  regard  for  the  serpent.  They  are  good  people,  and 
this  is  really  worship  to  them.  They  live  in  a  semi-desert, 
and  the  Spaniards  of  the  sixteenth  century  did  not  trouble 
them.     "The    snake  dance  is  an  elaborate  prayer  for  rain." 

1.  Rig  Veda  I.  37,  13 

2.  Oldham.      Sun  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.  52. 

3.  Hough.        The  Moki  Snake  Dance,  pp.   18,  19. 

Fewkes.       journal   of  American    Ethnology    and    Archeology, 
vol.  IV. 

4.  Hough.      The  Moqui  Snake  Dance,  p.    18. 

35 


The  place  is  not  prolific  in  serpents,  therefore  a  great  hunt 
is  made  for  them.  The  prayers  of  the  people  are  addressed 
to  the  serpents,  the  serpents  are  then  given  their  liberty  so 
that  they  may  bear  the  petitions  of  the  people  to  the  rain 
divinities,   who  can  bring  rain  to  the  arid  soil  of  the  Hopis. 

The  worship  of  the  Indians  in  Arizona  varies.  In 
some  of  the  tribes,  the  worship  of  the  sun  is  the  main  wor- 
ship; in  other  tribes,  it  is  the  corn  spirit;  in  others,  the  ser- 
pent. In  all,  it  is  the  worship  of  nature's  forces,  not  be- 
cause they  fear  these  forces,  but  because  they  would  petition 
these  nature  divinities  to  send  the  fertilizing  rain. 

The  power  of  the  serpent  gods  over  rain  is  a  world- 
wide belief.  You  find  it  a  dominant  thought  today  in 
India,  China,  Korea,  Mexico,  and  Peru. 


36 


Chapter    IX 
Ube  serpent  an6  tbe  win&. 

The  serpent  was  symbolical  of  the  wind  that  was  de- 
structive, and  also  of  the  wind  that  was  beneticent. 

Typhon,  to  the  Egyptians  and  Phoenicians,  was  a  de- 
structive wind  and  is  related  to  the  Hindu  Vritra  and  the 
Latin  Cacus.'  Cacus  was  not  an  ordinary  wind,  but  one 
associated  with  clouds,  and  Typhon  was  a  similar  wind  that 
the  Egyptians  and  Phoenicians  feared;  not  only  was  Typhon 
associated  with  the  desolating  wind,  but  the  Egyptians  made 
him  symbolical  of  the  ocean  storm,  and  also  of  evil  in  gen- 
eral. Typhon  was  the  dark,  disturbing  wind  cloud  that  ob- 
scured the  light  of  day,  but  that  dark  cloud  was  likewise 
the  cloud  of  rain;  as  in  the  Hindu  myth,  which  speaks  of 
Vritra,  the  dark  serpent  who  held  the  waters  from  the 
earth,  he  was  not  a  beneficent  deity,  for  while  he  controlled 
the  waters  of  the  sky,  he  was  loth  to  let  these  waters  refresh 
the  earth;  so  Indra,  the  god  of  the  watery  atmosphere,  con- 
tended with  the  serpent  Vritra  who  held  the  waters  back  in 
the  clouds;  the  outcome  of  the  contest  was  that  Indra  was 
victorious,  and  down  came  the  showers.  In  the  Maha- 
bharata,  Rudra  is  regarded  as  the  "destroyer  of  serpents," 
for  he  is  the  god  of  storms;  but  Rudra  is  also,  as  Mahadeva, 
the  "king  of  serpents",  and  Mahadeva  is  represented  as 
having  "a  girdle  of  serpents,  ear-rings  of  serpents,  a  sacri- 
ficial cord  of  serpents,  and  an  outer  garment  of  serpent's 
skin." 

Quetzalcoatl,  "the  feathered  serpent"  or  "the  serpent 
bird"  to  the  Mexican,  was  symbolical  of  the  beneficent 
wind;  he  was  the  gentle,  fertilizing  east  wind  from  the  Gulf 
that  brought  moisture  to  the  arid  lands  of  Mexico.* 
Tezcatlepoca  was  the  serpent  god  of  the  north,  and 
symbolized  the  dry  season.  It  was  this  god  that  battled 
with  the  feathered  serpent. 

1.  Wake.  Serpent  Worship,  pp.  71-85. 

2.  Reville.        Native  Religions  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  p.  57. 

37 


The  Spaniards,  when  they  saw  a  cross  in  Yucatan, 
immediately  presumed  that  St.  Thomas  had  visited  the 
place  and  preached  the  Gospel,  and  that  this  cross  was  the 
evidence  of  his  presence;  but  the  cross  was,  more  probably, 
a  sign  indicating  the  points  from  which  the  great  winds  of 
Mexico  came.' 

It  is  a  suggestive  fact  that,  to  the  ancient  mind,  the 
symbols  of  good  were  also  symbols  of  evil.  Under  certain 
conditions,  that  which  is  really  a  good  becomes  an  evil,  and 
the  ancients  had  no  hesitation  in  using  the  same  figure  for 
both  conceptions.  The  serpent  stands  for  the  noblest 
things  in  life  and  nature.  It  stands  also  for  that  ^yhich  is 
the  very  opposite  of  these  noble  conceptions.  In  this  parti- 
cular case,  the  serpent  stood  for  the  destructiveness  of  the 
wind  as  well  as  for  its  invigorating  power.  Vritra  and 
Typhon  represented  it  in  its  destructiveness, — Quetzalcoatl 
in  its  gentle,  fertilizing  energy. 

We  have  a  similar  contrast  in  the  Hindu  god  Rudra, 
the  "king  of  storms",  a  really  beneficent  god,  most  helpful 
in  his  ministrations  to  humanity.^  It  is  this  god  that  con- 
trols the  serpent  for  man's  good.  He  it  is  who  aims  to 
have  righteousness  done  in  the  earth;  but  "Rudra  is  also  a 
robber,  cheat,  deceiver,  and  master  thief."3  He  is  the  same 
as  Hermes,  who  can  be  as  a  gentle  breeze,  or  a  destructive 
hurricane. 

1.  That  which  Indra  uses  to  bring  on  the  rain  is  called  in  the  Veda 
"the  stone  with  four  points."      Rig  Veda  4,  22,  1-2. 

This    vajra    of   Indra  had,  probably,  the  form  of  St.  Andrew's 

cross.      See  on  this  D'Alviella  p.  98,  fF. 

Note    also    that    the    cross  is  the  sign  of  the  wind  in  India  and 

Mexico. 

2.  Menzies.      History  of  Religion,  p.  326. 

3.  Wake.  Serpent  Worship,  p.  85. 


38 


Chapter    X 
tlbe  serpent  as  atmospberic  pbenomena. 

The  serpent  also  symbolizes  the  various  forms  of  at- 
mospheric phenomena,  and  is  related  to  the  cloud  and  wind 
serpents. 

Baring-Gould  maintains  that  "the  dragon  of  popular 
mythology  is  nothing  else  than  the  thunder  storm  rising  at 
the  horizon,  rushing  with  expanding,  winnowing,  black 
pinions  across  the  sky,  darting  out  its  forked,  fiery  tongue 
and  belching  fire."'  The  storm  cloud  as  Baring-Gould 
has  presented  it  was  a  dragon  of  popular  mythology  but  not 
the  only  dragon  the  people  saw  in  nature:  the  Chinese  have, 
for  example,  nine  dragons,  and  they  do  not  all  represent 
the  thunder  storm.  Popular  mythology  had  its  torrent 
dragons  as  we  have  noted  in  a  previous  chapter.  Mixcoatl 
to  the  Mexicans  was  the  cloud  serpent  and  I stac- Mixcoatl 
the  gleaming  cloud  serpent,  possibly  the  tornado. 

Brinton  believes  that  Schwarz  is  right  with  regard  to 
the  paramount  meaning  of  the  serpent  in  Greek  and  Ger- 
man mythology.^  Schwarz's  theory  is  that  lightning  is  the 
original '  serpent,  and  that  men  first  learned  to  worship  the 
serpent  because  they  saw  it  in  the  lightning.  Brinton  fol- 
lows Schwarz  in  the  main,  but  believes  him  to  have  been  a 
little  too  extravagant  in  saying  that  the  lightning  first  led 
man  to  venerate  the  serpent.'  Brinton  appHes  the  lightning 
theory  of  Schwarz  to  the  serpent  myths  of  America,  for  he 
believes  that  the  lightning  is  the  basic  thought  of  these 
myths. 

It  would  seem  as  if  the  originals  of  the  cherubim  and 
seraphim    in    the    Old  Testament  were  "dragon-like  storm 

1.  Baring-Gould.      Book  of  Werewolves,  p.   172. 

A.  S.  Palmer.      Babylonian  Influence  on  the  Bible,  etc.,  p.  92. 
Brinton.  Myths  of  the  New  Worid,  pp.   117,  125. 

2.  Brinton.  Myths  of  the  New  Worid,  pp.   117,   •  "S. 


39 


clouds  and  serpentine  lightnings."'  Scripture  has  many 
references  to  show  the  influence  of  the  serpentine  figure  on 
the  mind  of  Israel.*  There  are  the  fiery  flying  serpents  of 
Isaiah  14:  29;  the  flying  serpent  of  Isaiah  27:  i,  Job  26: 
13;  the  tortuous  serpent  of  Isaiah  27:  i.  These  all  pic- 
ture the  serpent  of  the  sky.  They  represent  the  storm 
cloud  and  the  eclipse.  The  root  meaning  of  the  word 
"leviathan"  is  to  "coil"  or  to  "bind".  Whatever  this 
strange    monster    was,    it  had  a  serpentine  form. 

1.  W.  Robertson  Smith.      Prophets  of  Israel,  p.  218. 
Chcyne.      Isaiah,  1:37. 

Ewald.      Prophets  of  the  Old  Test,  II.  70. 
A.  S.  Palmer,  B.  I.,  p.  93. 

2.  Murison.      The  Mythical  Serpents  of  Hebrew  Literature,  p.  5. 


40 


Chapter   XI 
Ubc  serpent  as  QuarMan. 


The  serpent  as  the  guardian  of  the  soil  was  one  of  the 
leading  ideas  of  primitive  times:  as  guardian  of  the  soil  we 
can  readily  understand  how  likewise  he  became  the  symbol 
of  wealth,  for  he  was  also  the  guardian  of  the  treasures  of 
the  soil.  The  dragons  of  China  have  to  do  with  the  treas- 
uring and  the  sending  of  the  rain,  the  guarding  of  the 
rivers  and  streams  and  likewise  the  guarding  of  the  treas- 
ures of  the  soil. 

The  Acropolis  of  Athens  was  the  home  of  the  serpent 
that  was  the  chief  protector  of  the  city.'  It  was  Minerva, 
so  tradition  says,  who  created  the  olive  and  planted  it  on 
the  AcropoHs,  and  then  entrusted  it  to  the  care  of  the  ser- 
pent god  Erecthonius,  who  is  pictured  as  half  serpent,  half 
man.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  when  the  Persians  approach- 
ed the  city,  the  Greeks  did  not  lose  hope  until  the  serpent 
god  refused  his  food,  then  the  Persians  destroyed  this  ser- 
pent temple.  The  Erectheum  was  afterwards  built  on  the 
same  site.  In  this  temple,  "the  tree,"  says  Ferguson,  "oc- 
cupied the  caryatid  portico,  the  serpent  the  lower  cell  adjoin- 
ing where  the  well  of  Neptune  seems  to  have  been  situated."* 
Here  again  we  have  the  association  of  the  serpent  with  the 
spring. 

The  apples  of  Hesperides  were  protected  by  a  dragon, 
which    was    probably    the  river  or  a  spring  which  protected 

1.  Herodotus.      I,  8.  VIII,  41. 

2.  Ferguson.        Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.  1 4. 

"The  Athenians  say  that  they  have  in  their  Acropolis,  a  huge  ser- 
pent, which  lives  in  the  temple  and  is  the  guardian  of  the  whole  place,  nor 
do  they  only  say  this,  but  as  if  the  serpent  dwelt  there,  every  month  they  lay 
out  its  food,  which  consists  of  a  honey  cake:  up  to  this  time,  the  honey  cake 
had  been  consumed,  but  now  it  remained  untouched,  whereupon  they  left 
Athens  all  the  more  readily  since  they  believed  the  goddess  had  already  aban- 
doned the  citadel." 
Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  Book  VIII,  41. 

Vol.  IV,  pp.  250-251. 

41 


them  from  the  withering  power  of  the  sun's  rays.  It  would 
seem,  therefore,  that  the  serpent  came  to  be  thought  of  as 
guardian  because  of  the  protective  character  of  the  river. 
The  river  is  the  guardian  of  the  soil.  It  is  the  river  then, 
and  the  clouds  that  protect  the  land  from  the  withering 
power  of  the  sun's  rays;  and  so,  in  later  times,  actual 
serpents  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  protectors  of  temples 
and  homes. 

The  Teutons  and  Celts  had  guardian  snakes. 

"In    the    Panjab  hills  today  each  household  has  an  image    of  a 

nags  or  a  harmless  snake."  Crooke  p.   144. 

The  picture  that   Crooke   presents   though   is  that  of  a  hooded 

cobra. 


42 


Chapter   XII 
Zhc  serpent  as  tbe  ancestor  of  men. 

The  study  of  the  family  tree  is  very  interesting  to 
those  who  are  able  to  discover  the  facts.  Perhaps  it  would 
not  be  such  an  entertaining  investigation  if  we  could  go 
back  to  the  very  beginning  and  discover  a  snake  at  the  root 
of  the  tree.  The  fact  is  that  the  legendary  history  of  almost 
all  peoples  speaks  of  the  serpent  as  the  ancestor  or  ancestress 
of  mankind,  or  that  the  founder  of  their  race  was  a  serpent. 

The  legendary  history  of  Greece,  Rome,  Phoenicia 
and  Egypt  is  filled  with  stories  of  their  serpentine  ancestry. 
When  Cadmus  destroyed  the  dragon  who  killed  his  men, 
he  sowed  dragon's  teeth  and  these  produced  an  army  of 
men  who  fought  until  only  five  remained.  These  five 
built  Thebes;  one  of  the  five  was  Ophion,  the  serpent  god 
of  the  Phoenicians.  The  legend  goes  on  to  say  that  Cadmus 
and  his  wife  were  changed  into  serpents  instead  of  dying. 

When  Aeneas  was  about  to  worship  at  the  tomb  of 
Anchises,  his  father,  on  the  anniversary  of  his  father's  death, 
a  serpent  appeared  and  glided  among  the  altars,  tasted  the 
food  Aeneas  had  placed  there  and  then  departed.'  It  is  said 
that  Aeneas  did  not  know  whether  it  was  the  genius  locn 
or  his  father's  spirit.  The  mother  of  the  Scythians  was  a 
creature  half  serpent,  and  half  woman.  The  first  king  ot 
the  Abyssinians  was  the  serpent  Arwe  who,  according  to 
the  story,  reigned  four  hundred  years.  We  have  the  state- 
ment of  Pausanias  that  the  fathers  of  Aratus,  Alexander 
the  Great,  and  Scipio  the  Great,  were  serpents.^  The  Kaffirs 
of  Africa  will  not  kill  a  serpent  for  fear  that  one  of  their 
ancestors  has  concealed  himself  under  this  form.  The 
Prince  of  the  deities  of  the  Aztecs  was  Tezcatlepoca,  the 
sun  serpent,  and  Cihuacohuatl  was  his  wife.3  Among  the 
Indians    of  Arizona    the    serpent  is  regarded  as  km  to  the 

1.  Virgil.       Aenead  V.  line  84. 

2.  Pausanias  IV.   14. 

3.  Reville.      Nature   Religions  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  pp.  5  1-5 3- 
Brinton.     Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.   196. 

43 


priests.     The  Snake  Society  there  has  a  snake  ancestress.' 
Totemism  is  the  keynote  of  the  snake  ceremony  for  "human 
and  reptilian  beings  are  supposed  to  have  a  common  ances- 
tress." 

In  India,  the  naga  (snake)  demigods  are  supposed  to 
be  the  ancestors  of  the  naga  peoples,  so  the  serpent  is  the 
totem  of  the  people  who  believed  they  were  descended  from 
the  sun. =•  The  solar  deities  to  which  these  naga  tribes  pray 
for  rain  are  deified  human  beings, — demigods  rather  than 
gods;  the  naga  demigods  in  heaven  are  the  deified  ances- 
tors of  the  naga  people  on  earth;  these  naga  worshippers 
belong  to  a  late  period  in  Hindu  history. 3-  The  serpents 
(nagas)  which  Indra  fought  were  the  deities  of  theaborigines 
of  India;  these  deities  were  the  enemies  of  the  Aryans. 
Serpent  worship  then,  in  India,  was  the  worship  of  the  peo- 
ple who  preceded  the  Aryans,  and  therefore  cannot  be  re- 
garded as  the  orthodox  worship  of  India;  but  these  nagas 
were  the  ancestors  of  the  aborigines  of  India.  The  orthodox 
Brahman  considers  these  ancestor  deities  as  demons.  The 
asuras  and  serpas  of  the  Rig  Veda,  the  asuras  and  nagas 
of  Manu  and  of  the  Mahabharata,  and  the  asuras  or  de- 
mons of  the  Brahmans  are  the  serpent  deities  who  opposed 
the  Aryan  invasion. 

The  Kojiki,  which  is  the  record  of  the  original  belief 
of  Japan,  speaks  of  the  early  characters  in  such  a  way  that 
one  hardly  knows  whether  the  character  was  a  man  or  a 
snake,  or  "whether  the  mother  after  delivering  her  child 
will  or  will  not  glide  into  the  marsh,  or  slide  into  the  sea 
leaving  behind  a  trail  of  slime""^- 

As  in  Greece  and  Egypt,  the  great  temples  of  Japan 
were  built  on  sites  that  once  were  the  abode  of  some  serpent 
god.  Dragons  that  according  to  Griffis  are  "three  fourths 
serpent"  are  the  prominent  deities  of  the  Kojiki,  and  ot 
these  dragons  there  are  nine  varieties;  one  is  the  celestial 
dragon  which  guards  the  mansions  of  the  gods  lest    they 

1.  Fewkes.      American  Anthropologist,    vol.    II,  p.   lo8. 

Winter  solstice  ceremony  at  Wolpi. 

2.  Satapata  Brahmana  I;  z,  3,  2. 

Mahabharata.  Udyoga,  Sainyodyoga  p.  XVI. 

3.  Oldham.      The  Sun  and  the  Serpent,  p-  3  i  • 

4.  Griffis.         The  Religions  of  Japan,  p.   31. 

44 


fall;  another  is  the  spiritual  dragon  of  the  wind  and  rain; 
another,  the  earth  dragon  that  has  charge  of  the  course  of 
the  rivers  and  streams;  a  fourth  dragon  looks  after  the 
hidden  treasures,  and  guards  the  wealth  of  the  earth  which 
he  has  hidden  from  men,  and  so  on. 

The  serpent  is  regarded  as  the  progenitress  of  the 
Mikado,  and  Japan  has  therefore  great  reverence  for  the 
symbol.  The  primitive  people  of  Japan,  the  Ainos,  have 
still  a  regard  for  the  serpent  together  with  reverence  for 
rivers  and  trees.  The  great  natural  beauty  of  Japan  must 
have  been  a  stimulus  to  the  worship  of  nature.  Shintoism, 
the  religion  of  old  Japan,  is  a  nature  religion.'  Griffis  states 
that  to  know  Japan  you  must  know  Shinto,  and  the  serpent 
figures  prominently  in  the  Shinto  cult. 

The  Hindus,  the  Kaffirs,  and  the  North  American 
Indians  believe  that  the  danger  of  killing  a  serpent  consists 
in  this,  that  it  may  stir  up  the  enmity  of  the  serpent's  kin- 
dred.'-  The  snake  is  grandfather  to  all  of  the  people. 

The  serpent  as  the  ancestor  or  ancestress  of  man  is  a 
very  natural  thought,  inasmuch  as  the  serpent  symbolized 
the  beginning  of  life  or  creative  energy. 

1.  Edmund  Buckley.      Pamphlet.      Phallicism  in  Japan. 

2.  Wake.  Serpent  Worship,  p.  95. 


45 


Chapter   XIII 
TTbc  serpent  as  wie^om. 

The  serpent  as  emblematical  of  wisdom  is  likewise  a 
universal  thought. 

The  dragon  in  China  is  esteemed  as  a  creature  of  great 
intelligence.  In  Egypt,  Kneph,  the  creator  of  the  world, 
had  a  serpent  with  a  ram's  head  for  his  symbol.'  Kneph 
was  also  the  god  of  wisdom.  In  an  ancient  representation 
of  Pandora,  the  artist  pictures  her  at  the  mouth  of  a  grotto, 
one  hand  is  on  a  jar  which  contains  hope;  over  the  jar  is 
a  serpent  to  indicate  the  wisdom  which  will  enable  her  to 
preserve  hope  while  she  is  gazing  into  the  future  for  deliver- 
ance. In  India,  the  serpent  is  symbolical  of  every  kind  ot 
learning.  The  Upanishads  refer  to  the  wisdom  of  the  ser- 
pents.^ 

There  is  a  Buddhistic  legend  which  speaks  of  the 
serpents  "who  occupy  a  place  superior  to  man  and  are  re- 
garded as  the  protectors  of  the  law  of  Buddha."  These 
serpents  are  said  in  the  legend  to  reside  under  Mount 
Meru,  and  in  the  waters  of  the  terrestrial  world.  It  is 
probable  that  this  legend  refers  to  the  serpent  worshippers 
who  were  the  first  converts  to  Buddhism. 

The  Phoenicians  likewise  regarded  the  serpent  as  the 
emblem  of  wisdom.  It  was  the  serpent  god,  Thoth,  who 
invented  the  Phoenician  characters  whose  image  is  seen  in 
the  ninth  letter  of  the  alphabet — theta,  the  coiled  serpent. 
Philo's  testimony  is  to  the  same  point,  that  the  Phoenician 
alphabet  was  formed  by  means  of  serpents. 3 

In  the  folk-lore  of  Scotland  and  Germany,  it  is  said 
that  "the  white  snake,  when  boiled,  has  the  faculty  of  con- 
ferring medicinal  wisdom."  The  Gnostics  used  the  serpent 
on  their  gems  to  denote  wisdom.-^    The  serpent  was  a  sym- 

The  Serpent  Symbol,  p.   169. 
Serpent  Worship. 
Serpent  Worship,  pp.  90,  92. 
Sun  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.   194. 
'The  Gnostics  actually  worshipped  the  serpent." 

46 


I. 

Squier. 

z. 

Wake. 

3- 

Wake. 

4- 

Oldham 

bol  of  wisdom  in  Mexico.  Squier  remarks  that  the  writings 
of  Hernandez,  which  relate  to  the  plants  of  New  Spain, 
speak  of  a  snake  herb, — the  plant  of  wisdom, — which  the 
priests  ate  in  order  to  come  into  communion  with  the 
deities.' 

The  serpent  as  the  oldest  inhabitant  of  the  soil  and 
therefore  the  guardian  of  the  soil,  suggested  originally  the 
conception  of  the  serpent  as  the  symbol  of  wisdom.  The 
river  was  the  first  serpent  and  protected  the  fruits  of  the 
earth.  The  noiseless  movement  and  cunning  of  the  real 
serpent,  as  suggesting  wisdom,  was  probably  a  later  addi- 
tion. The  underlying  truth  was  this, — the  wisdom  seen  in 
the  serpent  as  the  guardian  of  the  treasures  of  the  soil. 

The  Ophites,  or  Serpentinians,  who  regarded  them- 
selves as  Christians,  looked  upon  the  serpent  as  a  good 
principle,  and  the  god  of  wisdom.^  It  was  the  serpent,  they 
said,  that  gave  to  Eve  the  true  knowledge  of  the  world. 
Jaldabaoth,  the  deity  of  the  Ophites,  after  the  creation  of 
man  became  jealous  of  his  work  and  gave  a  command  in 
order  that  he  might  disobey  and  fall.  The  Ophites  thought 
of  Jesus  and  Christ  as  two  persons;  Jesus  was  born  of  the 
Virgin, — Christ  was  the  serpent  whose  spirit  entered  Jesus. 
This  was  in  the  second  century.  In  the  third  century,  the 
theory  was  revived  by  the  Persian  Manes,  who  held  that 
Christ  was  the  incarnation  of  the  great  serpent  that  glided 
over  the  cradle  of  the  Virgin  Mary  when  she  was  sleeping. 

1 .  Squier.  The  Serpent  Symbol,  p.   I  5  5  note. 
Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.  292. 

2.  Deane.  The  Worship  of  the  Serpent,  pp.  86-90. 
Tertullian  De  Praescript.     Haeret,  c.  XLVII. 

The  Manicheans    used  the  serpent  as  a  type  of  the  Lord,   probably 
because   of  the    reference    in    the    New    Testament    to    the   brazen 
serpent.      Our  Lord  used  the  serpent  as  a  type    of  Himself,    as    He 
also  used  the  shepherd. 
Tertullian  regards  it  as  a  permissible  emblem. 

On  Idolatry  chapter  V. 

Ambrose  speaks  of  it  in  De  Spiritu  Sancto,  lib.  Ill,  c.  9. 
"Imago   enim  crucis   aureus   serpens   est  ;    qui    proprius   erat    typus 
corporis  Christi  ut  quicunque  in  eum  aspiceret,  non  pcriret." 
Smith  and    Cheetham.    Dictionary    of  Christian   Antiquities, 

art.    Serpents. 

47 


Chiipter   XIV 
Zhe  serpent  -  tbe  0T?mbol  of  bealino. 

The  serpent  as  a  symbol  of  healing  was  associated  with 
the  worship  of  Aesculapius  and  Hygeia,'  There  are  repre- 
sented on  Egyptian  temples,  young  princesses  nursed  by 
serpent-headed  women.  In  India,  the  hair  of  a  child  when 
it  is  jxist  teething  is  frequently  dedicated  to  the  serpent. 
The  attribute  of  Aesculapius  was  a  staff  with  a  serpent 
coiled  about  it.  His  temple  was  in  Epidaurus.  Here  ser- 
pents were  kept  and  fed  down  to  the  time  of  Pausanias, 
some  of  these  serpents  reaching  an  immense  size.  The 
serpent  symbol  was  the  attribute  to  Aesculapius  because  he 
was  the  healing  deity.  Probably  the  reason  the  serpent  was 
selected  as  the  symbol  of  healing,  was  because  of  the  earlier 
recognition  of  it  as  the  symbol  of  life.  The  serpent  was  the 
guardian  of  life,  and  therefore  was  the  healer.  The  worship 
of  the  serpent  as  a  healing  deity  continues  in  Egypt  today. 
Saycc  says,  "In  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  serpent  worship  still 
holds  undiminished  sway."^ 

Pilgrimages  are  annually  made  to  the  festival  ofShekh, 
— sailors  being  among  the  principal  worshippers.  Shekh 
Haredi  is  not  a  saint,  but  simply  a  serpent.  This  serpent 
has  the  power,  according  to  the  belief  of  the  people,  of 
breathing  out  flames  upon  the  irreverent;  but  to  the  sincere 
worshipper  he  bestows  healing,  which  fact  is  admitted  by 
both  Mahometans  and  Christians.  What  is  this  worship, 
but  simply  the  continuation  of  the  prehistoric  worship  of  the 
serpent?  Probably  the  old  Neolithic  population  of  the 
desert  worshipped  the  same  serpent. 

The  official  religions  of  Egypt  have  passed  away,  the 
old   prehistoric   superstitions  of  the  people  have  remained. 

1.  Pauianias  II.      Ovid.      Metamorphoses  XV.  5. 
Ferguson.  Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,  p.   14. 

2.  Siyce.  Contemporary  Review,  Oct.   1893. 

Sajrce  quotes  Paul  Lucas  who  lived  in  the  days  of  Louis  XIV. 
L.  travelled  as  far  as  Assouan.  He  said  that  this  serpent 
angel  had  cured  a  woman  who  had  been  paralytic  for  eight 
years. 

48 


So  strong  was  the  worship  of  the  serpent  in  Egypt,  that 
rationalizing  priests  of  a  later  period  created  artificial 
legends  about  the  serpent;  one  such  legend  is  that  of  Isis, 
kneading  and  moulding  the  saliva  that  flowed  from  the 
mouth  of  Ra  with  the  dust,  into  a  sacred  serpent.'  Ra  was 
afterwards  bitten  by  the  serpent.  The  healing  power  of 
the  serpent  is  a  belief  that  we  find  all  over  Egypt.  It  is 
easy  to  see  the  relation  of  the  serpent  as  healer  to  the 
serpent  as  representing  the  active,  invigorating  energy  of 
nature, — the  healing  serpent  gave  new  life  and  vigor  to 
those  who  needed  it. 

1 .  In  the  Hibbert  Lectures  pp.  213,  214,  Sayce  speaks  of  the 
continued  worship  of  the  serpent  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile. 
Each  house  has  its  guardian  serpent  which  is  fed  with  milk  and 
eggs. 

See   also  an  article  on   this   in  the    Cent.  Rev.    pp.  523-530. 
Smith's  Classical  Dictionary  Art.  Aesculapius. 


49 


Chapter   XV 
Ubc  eerpcnt  as  symbol  of  qoo^  an&  evil. 

In  all  great  nature  worship,  we  discern  this  fact  that 
what  under  certain  conditions  is  considered  a  good,  is  under 
other  conditions  considered  an  evil; — the  great  deep  to 
Babylonia  was  Ea,  and  Ea  was  regarded  as  the  first  legis- 
lator, the  creator  of  civilized  society,  but  Tiamat  was  also 
the  great  deep  and  the  principle  of  evil.  Ea  was  the  symbol 
of  the  beneficent  deep.  His  son  Marduk  fought  with  the 
serpent  or  dragon  Tiamat,  the  destructive  deep,  which 
caused  the  flood  and  desolation.  The  original  conception 
was  the  river; — the  river  in  its  productive  capacity  was 
symbolized  by  Ea,  in  its  destructive  capacity  by  Tiamat.' 
When  the  river  overflowed  its  banks  and  flooded  the  homes 
of  primitive  man,  the  river  would  naturally  be  regarded  as 
evil.      In  India,  for  example,  the  rivers  breed  marshes. 

Miasmatic  exhalations,  in  the  Middle  Ages  were 
typified  by  dragons.^  In  Greece,  Apollo,  son  of  Zeus,  des- 
troyed the  serpent  at  Delphi;  yet,  when  the  serpent  was 
conquered,  it  became  a  means  of  life.  This  carries  out  the 
thought  of  Trumbull  when  he  says;  "Every  possibility  of 
good  has  a  corresponding  possibility  of  evil.  Good  per- 
verted becomes  evil,"  so  to  the  ancient  mind  the  serpent 
Ea  was  the  deep  in  its  normal  character,  a  blessing  to  the 
soil;  Tiamat,  the  deep  in  its  abnormal  character,  which 
created  pestilence  and  destruction. 

The  double  character  of  symbols  is  again  seen  in  the 
representation  of  Rudra;  Rudra  was  a  most  beneficent  deity 
to  the  Hindus  and  was  therefore  interested  that  righteous- 
ness should  reign  in  the  earth,  but  Rudra  again  was  a  robber 
and  a  cheat.  We  can  never  be  sure  that  these  great  nature 
deities  were  always  good.  The  beneficent  sun — the  sun  of 
the  fair  season  in  Mexico,  Uitzilpochtli  or  the  "Humming 
bird  to  the  left,"  was  greatly  revered  by  the  Mexicans,  but 

1.  Trumbull.  Threshold  Covenant,  p.  228. 

2.  A.  S.  Palmer.      Babylonian  Influence  on  the  Bible,  p-  91. 

50 


Tezcatlepoca,  the  god  of  the  cold,  sterile  season, — the  ser- 
pent sun — was  not  only  stern  in  judgment  but  was  regard- 
ed as  cruel  in  his  subtlety. 

The  brazen  serpent  in  the  Scriptures  was  a  good  prin- 
ciple over  against  the  serpent  as  an  evil  principle.  I  think 
Trumbull's  view  of  the  two  thoughts  represented  by  the 
serpent  in  the  Scriptures  is  the  correct  one  when  he  says, 
"that  which  is  a  holy  instinct  becomes  through  its  perver- 
sion a  source  of  evil." 


51 


Chapter    XVI 
XTbe  ecrpcnt  anO  tbe  JSlblc. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  this  view  of  the  serpent  as 
the  symbol  of  creative  energy  will  shed  light  on  the  story 
of  Eden's  tree  and  serpent.  Trumbull  says,  "Desire,  as  in- 
dicated by  the  serpent,  prompted  to  an  untimely  partaking 
of  the  fruit  of  the  forbidden  tree  and  the  consequences  of 
sin  followed."^  Not  only  does  this  change  our  conception 
of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis;  but  it  is  in  harmony  with  the 
later  history  of  Israel  in  her  weaknesses.  She  lived  in  an 
environment  of  the  basest  nature  worship.  The  Canaanite 
was  not  an  inspiring  companion.  There  is  no  sin  so  griev- 
ous in  the  Old  Testament  teaching  as  the  sin  of  Canaan. 
The  serpent  and  the  tree  figure  prominently  in  the  opening 
narrative  of  the  Bible,  and  also  in  the  closing  section.  The 
dragon,  the  old  serpent,  is  represented  as  shut  out  from  the 
Holy  City,  but  blessedness  belongs  to  those  who  wash  their 
robes;  these  have  "right  to  come  to  the  tree  of  life  and  enter 
in  through  the  gates  into  the  city."* 

There  is  a  suggestion  in  Cox's  Mythology  of  the 
Aryan  Nations  which  illustrates  the  contention  of  Trumbull, 
when  he  says,  that  "the  eating  of  the  lotus  is  the  eating  of 
the  forbidden  fruit,  and  the  Lotophagoi  of  the  Odyssey  are 
an  example  of  unrestrained  sensuality,  and  a  warning  to  all 
who  came  for  higher  things  not  to  imitate  their  selfish  pleas- 
ures and  so  forget  their  children  and  their  homes."3 

Trumbull  interprets  the  Edenic  narrative  in  this  way ; 
"  That  which  was  primarily  a  holy  instinct  became,  in  its 
perversion,  a  source  of  evil  and  a  cause  of  dread,  hence  the 
serpent  became  a  representation  of  evil  itself. " 

It  is  easy  thus  to  understand  why   the  serpent   is   the 

1.  Trumbull.     The  Threshold  Covenant,  p.  238. 

•'The  consequences  upon  Eve's  act  of  disobedience  in  eating  the 
forbidden  fruit  was  that  she  would  bear  children  in  sorrow." 
Wake.  Serpent  Worship,  p.   16. 

2.  Rev.    20;  I,  2.      22;      14,   15. 

3.  Cox.      Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations,  p.  356. 

52 


symbol  of  evil  and  the  symbol  ot  good  also, — ot  darkness 
and  light.  Philo  Judaeus  gives  a  similar  interpretation  to 
the  narrative  in  Genesis.'  He  conceives  of  Moses  speaking 
in  an  allegorical  way;  of  Moses  intimating  that  wisdom  and 
moderation,  by  means  of  which  things  contrary  in  their 
nature  to  one  another  are  distinguished. 

When  the  children  of  Israel  were  in  the  Sinaitic  wilder- 
ness the  people  were  bitten  by  fiery  serpents.  Moses 
prayed  to  Jehovah  and  he  was  directed  to  make  a  fiery  ser- 
pent and  place  it  on  a  pole  in  sight  of  all  the  people,  so 
that  when  the  people  should  gaze  on  it  they  might  live. 
One  can  hardly  resist  the  temptation  of  thinking  that  the 
whole  story  is  intensely  symbolical.  The  serpent  was,  and 
is,  the  emblem  that  in  its  root  meaning  is  symbolical  of 
life.  It  may  have  been  that  the  people  of  Israel  had  gross- 
ly violated  the  sacredness  of  the  threshold,  and  the  brazen 
serpent  was  symbolical  of  a  nobler  conception  of  life.  That 
emblem  was  kept  all  the  days  of  Samuel,  Saul,  and  David 
and  during  this  time  did  not  seem  to  be  displeasing  to 
Jehovah.*  It  was  only  as  it  was  regarded  as  an  idol,  and 
the  ideal  it  symbolized  was  lost,  that  it  was  ordered  to  be 
destroyed. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  there  were  debasing  tendencies  in 
the  wilderness  that  led  to  the  erection  of  the  brazen  serpent. 
It  gives  point  to  the  narrative  if  we  think  of  it  as  illustrat- 
ing the  coming  of  Jehovah  down  to  the  level  of  Israel's 
thought,  and  raising  them  to  a  diviner  conception  of  life. 
The  brazen  serpent  meant  a  divine  conception, — the  up- 
lifting of  the  primitive  impulse. 

1.  Philo  Judaeus  I.     No.  54,  fF.      Bohn's  trans,  p.  45. 

2.  Trumbull  says;  "the  curse  resting  on  the  serpent  in  consequence 
of  the  first  sin  of  incontinence  was  the  degradation  of  the  primi- 
tive impulse,  (Gen.  3;  14,  15.)  unless  uplifted  again  by  divine 
inspiration." 

T.  259. 

II  Kings  18;  14.  John  3;  14,   15.  pv^   it 

Nehustan    was    the    name  of  the  serpent  of  Moses^derived  from 

vulva  or  at  all  events  related  to  this  word. 

Fritz  Hommel  note  Trumbull's  T.  C.  p.  335. 

The    words,  tree,  fruit,  knowledge,  serpent  were  expressions  we 

would      have    appreciated    when    the    Bible    account    was    first 

given.  Trumbull.      Threshold  covenant  p.  238. 

63 


It  is  true  that  the  serpent  has  been  regarded  by  Chris- 
tians and  Mahometans  as  in  the  main  a  symbol  of  evil. 
The  Moslem  looks  upon  the  serpent  with  extreme  aversion. 
He  will  not  have  anvthino;  to  do  with  whatever  bears  the 
slightest  resemblance  to  it.  A  hair  that  falls  from  his  beard, 
he  will  break  in  two  for  fear  it  might,  in  some  marvelous 
way,  turn  into  a  serpent."  When  the  Spaniards  saw  so 
many  serpent  carvings  in  Mexico,  and  temples  with  doors 
representing  the  jaws  of  one  of  these  reptiles,  they  concluded 
that  the  Mexicans  were  devil  worshippers.*  To  the 
Mexican,  however,  the  serpent  stood  for  the  divinity  in 
nature  which  was  favorable  to  their  welfare.  Yet  the  early 
Christians  in  times  of  persecution  when  they  were  not  per- 
mitted to  use  the  Cross  as  a  svmbol,  used  the  emblem  of  a 
serpent  as  well  as  the  emblem  of  the  lamb  and  the  Good 
Shepherd,  for  John  interprets  the  serpent  of  Moses  as  the 
symbol  of  eternal  life;  an  eternal  life  which  is  not  only  a  life 
hereafter  but  a  possible  present  possession.  Christ  presents 
himself  to  Nicodemus  as  the  great  antitype  of  the  brazen 
serpent.3 

The  thought  presented  therefore  in  the  serpent  is  that 
of  creative  energy.  That  seems  to  have  been  the  great 
thought  of  all  religions;  such  worship  may  lead  to  great 
abominations,  but  these  arose  as  a  corruption  of  the  primi- 
tive worship.  The  serpent  in  the  Scriptures,  while  mainly 
a  symbol  of  evil,  is  likewise  a  symbol  of  good.  It  stands 
for  a  holy  instinct  which  had  been  perverted, — but  the 
brazen  serpent  symbolized  a  holy  life  in  Christ. 

1.  Wilkinson.      Ancient  Egyptains,  p.  338. 

2.  Brinton.  Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.   124. 

Brinton    says    that    the  serpent  in  Mexico  expresses  atmospheric 
phenomena,   p.  127. 

3.  John  3;  14,  15.  **And  as  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the 
wilderness,  even  so  must  the  Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up;  that  whoso- 
ever believeth  »«y  in  Him  should  have  eternal  life." 


54 


Chapter    XVll 

Zhc  ^cMsiwQ  cbaractei'  ot  serpent 
vvorsbtp  in  later  times. 

The  serpent  figures  in  the  degrading  worship  of  India 
today, — for  it  is  creative  energy  that  is  worshipped.  In 
Siva  worship,  there  is  not  only  the  thought  of  destruction 
but  ot  re-creation,  and  in  one  of  his  forms  he  is  garlanded 
with  serpents.  He  is  also  pictured  as  consisting  of  two 
halves, — the  one  half  representing  the  masculine  principle 
and  the  other  the  feminine  principle.  Thus  the  thought  of 
re-creation  following  dissolution  is  presented  in  this  wor- 
ship. It  is  easy  therefore  to  see  how  such  a  worship  could 
degenerate. 

Missionaries  testify  that  the  practical  effect  of  the 
teachings  of  the  Puranas  and  I'antras  upon  the  people  is 
"spiritually  degrading".'  Bishop  I'hoburn  testifies  that  the 
worship  of  Siva  is  most  debasing  and  immoral, — but  the 
worship  today  in  India  and  the  orgies  of  Bacchus  in  ancient 
times,  vv'hen  serpents  were  carried  in  the  arms  of  the  votaries, 
do  not  give  a  correct  idea  of  the  worship  of  primitive  man, 
and  his  interpretation  of  these  serpent  rites. ^  The  serpent 
stood  as  the  symbol  of  his  blessing. 

Kurz,  in  his  History  of  the  Old  Covenant,  has  wisely 
said  that  "every  error,  however  dangerous,  is  based  on  some 
truth  misunderstood,  and  every  aberration,  however  grievous, 
has  started  from  a  device  for  real  good,  which  has  not  at- 
tained its  goal  because  the  latter  was  sought  neither  by  the 
ricrht  way  nor  by  the  right  means. "^  Apply  this  to  serpent 
worship: — it  originated  in  a  desire  for  real  good,  even 
though  in  India,  today,  it  is  a  most  degrading  and  immoral 
worship.  We  have  the  testimony  of  Monier  Williams  that 
the  doctrines  of  the  Indian  Tantras  "though  in  some  cases 
these  lapsed  into  a  degrading  system  of  impurity  and  licen- 

1.  Jones.  India's  Problem,  p.  105. 

2.  Thoburn,      Conquest  of  India,  p.   114, 

3.  Kurz.  History  ot  the  Old  Covenant  III,  348. 


tiousness;  nevertheless,  the  original  Tantra  books,  which 
simply  inculcate  the  worship  of  the  active  energizing  prin- 
ciple of  the  deity, — full  as  they  are  of  doubtful  symbolism, 
strange  mysticism,  and  even  of  directions  for  witchcraft  and 
every  kind  of  superstitious  rite, — are  not  necessarily  in 
themselves  impure;  on  the  contrary,  the  best  of  them  are 
believed  to  be  free  from  gross  allusions,  however  question- 
able may  be  the  tendency  of  their  teachings."' 

It  is  the  tendency  of  the  teaching  that  the  missionary 
notes,  but  the  great  thought  is  the  worship  of  the  creative 
force.  The  great  mystery  of  life  and  its  transmission  has 
always  impressed  simple  people  with  wonder,  and  led  them 
in  their  simple  way  to  worship  the  creator  of  that  power; 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  this  impressed  them  before  they 
endeavored  to  understand  the  movements  of  the  winds  or  the 
heavenly  bodies.*  The  enigma  of  existence  is  a  problem, 
for  "Men  show  themselves  conscious  of  the  thought  in  the 
rudest  forms  of  religion. "3 

Griffis  speaks  of  the  original  innocent  use  of  the  now 
prohibited  symbols  in  Japan,  and  yet  before  the  prohibition 
in  1872,  the  extent  of  phallic  worship  was  so  great  that  it 
would  tax  the  credibility  of  the  western  mind.  He  further 
states  that  a  critical  student,  who  has  lived  among  these 
people,  recognizes  their  sincerity,  innocence  and  devoutness 
in  the  use  of  the  symbols,  and  he  never  had  any  reason  to 
doubt  the  sincerity  of  the  worshipper,  "The  mystery  of 
fatherhood  is,  to  primitive  man,  the  mystery  of  creation 
also.  To  him,  neither  the  thought  nor  the  word  was  at 
hand  to  put  difference  and  transcendental  separation  between 
them  (z".  e.  the  symbols)  and  what  he  worshipped  as  a  god."-* 

This  is  the  interpretation  of  serpent  worship — man  at 
his  lowest  level  struggling  for  the  power  that  is  above  him 
and  on  which  he  depends.  "With  the  exception  of  man," 
says  Schopenhauer,  "no  being  wonders  at  his  own  existence 
and  surroundings. "5  Primitive  man's  religion  was  a  religion 
of  the   mystery  of  life,  and  an  attempt  to  solve  the  enigma 

< 

Monier  Williamg.  Indian  Wisdom.  The  Puranas  and  Tantras. 

Trumbull.  Threshold  Covenant,  p.  324.. 

Frazer.  Philosophy  of  Theism,  I.  p.  9. 

Griffis.  Religions  of  )apan,  p.  29. 

Frazer.  Philosophy  of  Theism,  p.  9. 


06 


of  life.  What  Griffis  says  of  the  Japanese,  as  to  the  inno- 
cent and  devout  use  of  the  symbols,  may  be  said  generally 
of  the  pure  character  of  the  primitive  man's  faith. 

We  may  therefore  confidently  affirm  that  whatever  may 
have  been  the  cause  for  the  selection  of  the  serpent  as  a 
symbol,  it  was  a  symbol  of  good  at  the  beginning.  Fergu- 
son explains  it  in  this  way,  that  the  worship  "may  have 
originated  in  fear  but  long  before  we  became  practically 
acquainted  with  it,  it  had  passed  to  the  opposite  extreme 
among  its  votaries."'  Then  he  says,  "Love  and  admiration 
more  than  fear  or  dread  seem  to  be  the  main  features  of  the 
faith;"  but  this  explanation  is  simply  theory.  The  actual 
primitive  worship,  from  his  extended  investigations,  leads 
him  to  this  conclusion  that  the  serpent  was  originally  an 
agathodaemon  and  the  "bringer  of  health  and  good  fortune." 
The  monuments  of  Assyria  testify  to  the  fact  that  the  ser- 
pent was  worshipped  as  a  good  principle;  and  in  the  mytho- 
logy of  the  Aryan  nations  it  was  the  symbol  ot  life  and 
love.* 

Squier  says,  "Long  before  Lucan  apostrophized,  *You 
also  harmless  deities,  dragons  sparkling  with  golden  lustre, 
who  glide  over  the  earth,'  the  reason  for  the  superstitious 
regard  in  which  the  serpent  was  held  had  been  forgotten 
and  the  reptile  had  become  an  arbitrary  symbol  of  consecra- 
tion." It  was  Persius  who  said,  "Paint  two  snakes  and  the 
place  is  sacred. "3  A  picture  found  at  Herculaneum  re- 
presents this  thought.  A  serpent  is  seen  in  the  picture 
twined  about  an  altar  and  eating  the  offerings  that  have 
been  placed  upon  it;  a  naked  boy  is  pictured  standing  in 
front  of  the  altar.  The  snake  on  the  altar  represents  the 
genius  of  the  place.4 

The  serpent  therefore  at  the  beginning  of  our  know- 
ledge of  it  stood  for  that  which  is  good.  Trumbull  main- 
tains that  threshold  worship  was  the  pure  primitive  worship 
of  man  and  the  serpent  cult  is  a  similar  worship. 

1.  Ferguson.  Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,   pp.  2,  3. 
Cox.  M.  A.  N.,  p.   238. 

2.  Layard.  Nineveh,  II.  p.  354. 

3.  Persius.  II.     p.     H3    quoted  by    Squier. 
Squier.  Serpent  Symbol,  p.  246. 

4.  Smith.  Claseical  Dictionary,  art.      Genius. 

57 


To  say,  that  because  the  serpent  was  an  object  of  fear, 
man  worshipped  it,  is  by  no  means  satisfactory;  for  fear 
docs  not  seem  to  be  the  root  idea  of  the  serpent  symbol. 
The  root  idea  of  religion  as  represented  in  the  serpent,  is 
"awe  at  the  mysterious  and  unknown."  The  Hopi  Indian 
of  Arizona  certainly  does  not  worship  the  serpent  because 
he  fears  it,  but  because  he  believes  that  the  serpent  has 
some  mysterious  power  over  the  rain.'  Something  more 
than  fear  must  account  for  man's  religion;  an  animal 
possesses  fear,  but  he  gives  no  intimation  of  worshipful 
tendencies.  Man  possesses  something  more  than  fear,  for 
there  is  associated  with  this  fear,  a  sense  of  wonderment  and 
awe  at  the  mysteries  of  life.  When  Mr.  Huxley  says  that 
there  is  no  "absolute  structural  line  of  demarcation  that  is 
very  great  between  the  animals  that  immediately  precede  us 
and  ourselves,"  he  adds,  "yet  no  one  is  more  strongly  con- 
vinced than  I  am  of  the  vastness  ofthe  gulf  between  civilized 
man  and  the  brutes,  whether  from  them  or  not,  he  is  as- 
suredly not  of  them." 

The  great  forces  of  nature  did  not  create  his  faith; 
they  awakened  it;  but  there  was  a  faith  to  be  awakened. 
The  ground  of  man's  religion  is  not  to  be  found  in  fear  but 
in  the  constitution  the  Almighty  gave  him  at  the  start. 
Man  is  religious  because  he  has  a  religious  nature.  He 
started  as  a  child;  had  simple  childlike  conceptions;  but  he 
recognized  that  there  was  behind  all  this  mystery  of  life,  a 
divinity  which  he  imperfectly  apprehended,  but  which  he 
symbolized  by  the  forces  of  nature  that  he  knew  were  the 
causes  of  his  blessing. 

The  aim  of  men  from  the  very  beginning  then,  has 
been  to  solve  the  great  mystery  of  life.  This,  too,  has 
been  the  aim  of  philosophy,  "to  solve  the  mystery  of  life 
and  the  universe  in  which  we  live;  our  origin;  our  destiny; 
and  the  relations  of  the  finite  to  the  infinite."*  We  may 
say  that  this,  though  in  a  very  limited  way,  was  the  problem 
of  primitive  man.  In  the  days  of  his  simplicity  and  crude- 
ness,  he  was  awed  by  the  great  mystery  of  life  and  the  my- 

1 .  Hough.  The  Moqui  Snake  Dance, 

Fewkes,  Journal     of  American    Ethnology     and 

Archeology,    vol.     IV. 

2.  Dr.  Ellinwood.       Philosophy  of  Religion. 

58 


stery  of  the  universe.  "The  root  of  all  religion,"  says 
Wake,  "is  awe  at  the  mysterious  and  unknown."  It  was 
because  he  was  awed  by  the  mysteries  of  life,  that  he  wor- 
shipped. He  worshipped  creative  energy  wherever  he  saw 
its  manifestation. 

It  has  been  the  purpose  of  this  dissertation  to  give  an 
outline  of  the  many  things  that  are  symbolized  by  the  ser- 
pent, and  to  show  how  these  many  things  arc  rooted  in  one 
idea;  for  serpent  worship,  wherever  we  find  it,  is,  at  its  root, 
a  worship  of  the  invigorating,  fertilizing  power  of  nature. 
Man  worshipped  the  sun  not  simply  because  of  its  light  or 
its  heat,  but  because  of  its  life  giving  energy,  which  to  the 
ancient  mind  was  a  most  important  feature  of  the  sun.  We 
have  a  great  example  of  this  reverence  in  the  Gayatri  of  the 
Rig  Veda.  This  Gayatri  is  the  most  sacred  text  of  the 
Vedas  and  must  be  used  daily  by  the  Brahman  in  his  devo- 
tions.' It  is  a  prayer  to  the  sun  as  a  creator  or  generator. 
The  prayer  is  as  follows;  "Let  us  meditate  on  the  excellent 
glory  of  the  divine  Vivifier.  May  he  enlighten  our  under- 
standings."* The  serpent  to  the  ancient  mind  symbolized 
this  life-giving  power  of  the  sun.  Man  saw,  however,  the 
same  invigorating  energy  in  the  river,  the  torrent,  the  clouds 
and  the  wind  and  he  symbolized  creative  energy  wherever 
he  saw  it  by  the  serpent  symbol. 

1.  Oldham.  Sun  and  Serpent  Worship,  pp.  206,  207. 

2.  Rig  Veda,   III,  62,  10. 


59 


Appendix. 


Wib  the  worsbip  of  the  serpent  sprlno  from  a 

common  center? 

That  the  worship  of  the  serpent  has  its  source  in  a 
common  center  certainly  seems  possible  for  there  are  features 
about  serpent  worship  wherever  we  find  it  that  suggest  a 
common  origin.  We  have  noticed  in  the  early  history  of 
mankind  how  one  people  has  borrowed  a  symbol  from  an- 
other people  and  then  has  modified  it  to  suit  its  environ- 
ment and  ideas  and  yet  the  borrowed  symbol  has  retained 
so  much  of  its  original  character  that  we  can  trace  its  origin; 
for  example,  the  winged  circle  originated  in  Egypt  but  it 
found  its  way  to  Phoenicia,  Babylon  and  Persia  and  with 
slight  modifications  became  a  symbol  to  these  peoples. 
The  worship  of  the  serpent  has  extended  to  all  parts  of  the 
world  and  with  practically  the  same  meaning. 

Squier  concludes  his  work  on  the  serpent  symbol  by 
saying,  "It  is  a  fact  that  most  of  its  applications  (serpent 
symbol)  seem  essentially  arbitrary,  which  gives  peculiar  in- 
terest to  the  circumstance  of  its  great  predominance  on  this 
continent,  particularly  in  Mexico  and  Central  America, 
where  it  had  a  symbolical  significance,  closely  corresponding 
if  not  absolutely  indentical  with  that  which  it  possessed  in 
the  early  mythologies  of  the  east.  This  fact  also  tends  to 
establish  a  community  of  origin  or  intercourse  of  some  kind 
between  the  primitive  nations  of  the  two  continents,  for  it 
can  hardly  be  supposed  that  a  strictly  arbitrary  symbol 
should  accidently  be  chosen  to  express  the  same  ideas  and 
combination  of  ideas  by  nations  of  diverse  origins  and  totally 
disconnected."' 

To  the  same  effect,  Oldham  remarks;  "It  seems  in  the 
highest  degree  improbable  that  the  close  connection  between 
the  sun  and  the  serpent  could  have  originated  independently 
in  countries  so  far  apart  as  China  and  the  west  of  Africa,  or 
India  and  Peru; — and  it  seems  scarcely  possible  that,  in 
addition    to    this,    the    same  forms  of  worship  of  these  two 

I.      Squier.      The  Serpent  Symbol,  p.  254. 

60 


deities,  and  the  same  ritual,  could  have  risen  spontaneously 
amongst  each  of  these  far  distant  peoples.  The  alternative 
appears  to  be  that  the  combined  worship  of  the  sun  and  the 
serpent  gods  must  have  spread  from  a  common  centre  by 
the  migration  of  or  communication  with  the  people  who 
claimed  solar  descent."' 

The  conflict  between  the  sun  and  the  clouds  has  been 
pictured  in  ancient  story  as  the  conflict  between  an  eagle  and 
a  serpent.  This  was  true  in  the  Homeric  ages;  then  the 
serpent  was  a  symbol  of  victory.  The  story  is  told  in  the 
Iliad  that  the  Trojans  lost  heart  when  they  saw  an  eagle 
"which  held  a  serpent  in  its  claws,  take  flight,  being  wound- 
ed by  its  prey."  This  is  very  similar  to  the  thought  of  the 
Aztecs,  for  Mexico  was  founded  according  to  the  Aztec 
tradition  when  the  founders  saw  an  apparition  of  "an  eagle 
which,  perched  upon  an  agave,  and  with  wings  outstretched 
towards  the  rising  sun,  held  a  serpent  in  its  talons." 
D'Alviella  goes  on  to  say  that  "the  first  conquerors  of 
Mexico  saw  therein  an  emblem  of  future  greatness,  and  to 
the  present  dav  this  emblem  figures  in  the  arms  ot  the  capi- 
tal.    Yet  it  is  unlikely  that  the  Aztecs  had  read  Homer."* 

It  is  perfectly  natural  for  man  to  worship  the  sun, 
whether  he  lives  in  Asia,  America,  or  the  isles  of  the  sea, — 
but  serpent  worship  with  practically  the  same  thought  in 
regard  to  it  is  strongly  suggestive  of  a  common  center  for 
the  Face.  uiO'^i>"'= 

1,  Oldham.  Sun  and  Serpent  Worship,  pp.   183,   184. 

2.  D'Alviella.      Migration  of  Symbols,   p.  17. 


01 


Literature. 


James  Ferguson. 


>  T'ree  and  Serpent  Worship.     Or  Illustrations    of  Mythology 

^  and  Art  in  India  in  the  first  and  fourth  centuries  after  Christ, 


etc. 


1868 


E.  G.   Squier. 

The    Serpent    Symbol    and    the    worship  ot   the  Reciprocal 
Principles  of   Nature  in  America.  1  jj  ^- 1 

J.   B.  Deane. 

The   worship  of  the  serpent  traced  throughout  the  world  and 
^  its  traditions    referred  to  the  events  in   Paradise  proving  the 

temptation  and  fall  of  men  by  the  instrumentality  of  a  serpent 
tempter.  ,g^o 

Jacob   Bryant. 

Antient  Mythology. 

F.  Max  Muller. 

Contributions  to  the   Science  of  Mythology.  I  897 

Angelo  De  Gubernatis. 

Zoological  Mythology.  I  872 


Edward   B.    Tylor. 

Primitive  Culture. 


1874 


Richard   P.    Knight. 

Priapus.  ,865 

Count  Gobi.kt  D'Ai.vieli.a. 

The  Migration  ot  Symbols.  '894 

|.    C.    BOUDIN.  \ 

Du  culte  du  serpent  chez  divers  peuples  anciens  et  moderncs.       1  864 

Herman  Ulrici. 

Gott  und  ilcr  Mensch.  1874 

63 


C.    SlANII  AND    WaKH. 

Serpent  Worship  and  Essays.  1888 

Jacob   Grimm 

Teutonic  Mythology. 

Charles   Francis   Keary 

Outlines  of  Primitive  Beliefs  among  the  Indo-European  Races.     1882 

Sir   George  W.   Cox 

The  Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations.  1882 

W.  R.  Cooper 

Serpent  Myths  of  Ancient  Egypt. 

A.  H.  Sayce 

The  Religions  of  Ancient  Egypt  and  Babylonia.  The 
GifFord  Lectures  on  the  Ancient  Egyptian  and  Babylonian 
Conception  of  the    Divine.  1902 

Serpent    Worship    in   Ancient    and    Modern     Egypt 
Contemporary    Review    October     1893  1893 

Alfred    Wiederman 

The    Religion    of   the    Ancient    Egyptians  '897 


G.     Maspero 

The    Dawn    of   Civilization    in    Egypt    and    Chaldea  189^ 

Hist,  ancienne    des  peuples    d  I' orient  '9*^4 

H.  K.  Brugsch 

Egypt    under    the    Pharoah's 

J.  Walter  Fewkes 

The  American  Anthropologist,  Vol.     II.  1898 

Journal    of  American    Ethnology  and   Archeology    Vol.  IV. 

Walter  Hough 

The    Moki    Snake    Dar.ce.    Popnlar    account    of   the  Pagan 
ceremony    of   the    Pueblo    Indians    at    Tusaya    Arizona.  1899 

D.  G.  Brinton 

Myths    of  the    New    World.  1868 

Essays    of   an    Americanist.  1890 

Albert  Reville 

The    Native    Religions    of    Mexico    and    Peru.  1884 

G4 


•  •      •     • 


I         .•,•♦.•,••    • 


W.  E.  Griffis 

The    Religions    ot    Japan.  iRoj- 

"     Corea    the    Hermit    Nation. 

The    Mikado's    Empire.  1876 

Edmund  Buckley 

Phallicism    in    Japan.   (Pamphlet) 

W.  Crooke 

Popular    Religion    and    Folk    Lore    of    Northern  India.  i8g6 

C.    F.    Ol.DHAM. 

The    Sun    and    the    Serpent.  .         igoc 

The    Nagas.  ,yo, 

G.    Rawlinson 

The    Five     Great    Monarchies. 

A.  Smythe  Palmkr 

Babylonian    Influence    on    the    Bible  and  Popular  Beliefs. 

Francois    Lenormant 

Chaldean    Magic.  1 877 

HiPPOLYTUS. 

Refutation  of  all  Heresies 

Herman  Gunkbl. 

Schopfung  und  Chaos  in  Urzeit  und  Endzeit  1895 

Charles   Gould. 

Mythical  Monsters  1886 

Ross  G.    Murison. 

The  Mythical  Serpents  of  Hebrew  Literature. 

H.    Clay  Trumbull. 

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Ignaz   Goldziher. 

'   Mythology  among  the  Hebrews.  1877 


|oHN    P.    LUNDY. 

Monumental    Christianity    or    the  Art  and  Symbolism 
of  the  Primitive  Church. 

EusEBius. 

Praeparatio   Evaogelica 

65 


1876 


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